A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Winner of World Theatre Education Alliance 2019 International Theatre Festival (Beijing, China)

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a famous romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. We can easily find the Ukrainian ethnic spirit of the national holiday of Ivan Kupala in it. One of the main symbols of this holiday is the fern flower. There is a legend that a person who could find a fern flower at midnight on Ivan Kupala would be rich, happy and definitely loved.
In this performance, we draw a parallel with our historical myths and turn the main characters from Greeks into Ukrainians. They all represent our multicultural nature, which can be seen in the musical arrangement, choreography and vocabulary. At the same time, we leave the basis to William Shakespeare, and this mixture seems both natural and unusual today.
The performance involves a lot of live music. The forces of blooms control human nature and make the main characters move like dolls toward their object of adoration.
The main goal is not only Shakespeare’s analysis of human feelings and their comic transformation, but also the imposition of Ukrainian national culture on the great Renaissance drama. It was crucial to poetise folk rituals with the words of a great playwright, to find the key to the national code in the global storyline and adapt it to the present, to people who still make exactly the same mistakes as before, who still go to any lengths for the sake of their love, consciously, unconsciously or because of something mysterious that came from outside…
The Molodyy Theatre is a brave and promising theatre, full of ideas, strength and energy to create new, progressive projects of performing arts.

“The melding of Ukrainian traditional dance and folk songs and what is essentially a Greek myth written by an English playwright is a beautiful reflection of the support one country can give another in hard times, and this is the message that transcends the play being performed. We are all improved by our interactions with different cultures. (…) frankly, that is more amazing than anything Shakespeare could ever have written, considering the conflict still happening in the Ukraine.”
Ruth Jepson

Andrii Bilous is a Ukrainian theatre director, theatre teacher, actor, playwright, translator, head of the theoretical and practical educational project “Molodyy Theatre. Studio”, Honoured Artist of Ukraine. Since 2012, the artistic director of the Kyiv National Academic Molodyy Theatre.
His performances become hits and real events of the theatrical season. His creative biography includes more than 50 productions of works by different authors: W. Shakespeare, W. Allen, E. Rostand, M. McDonagh, H. Ibsen and others.
His directorial style is a true avant-garde of our time. Andrii Bilous gravitates towards what most people try to avoid (for fear of seeming “out of date”). He strives for text and subtext. For hidden meanings and the variability of an actor’s existence. He tries to extract from the stage text its inner music. As a rule, he avoids conspicuous external techniques. Andrii Bilous has set himself a challenging goal: to build a humane theatre with eternal values.

Kyiv National Academic Molodyy Theatre is an energetic team that seeks to discover new talents, experiment and conquer the peaks of performing arts. The theatre has three stages. The number of premieres reaches 10–12 per season, which allows the theatre to show at least three performances a day, involving all the stages of the theatre. Volodarsky and Shakespeare, McDonough, Ibsen and Schmitt – the repertoire of the Molodyy Theatre has 46 productions that do not intersect with each other in any way by genre or stylistically. Thus, more than 600 performances are shown in one theatrical season.

The Molodyy Theatre participates in national and international festivals, does tours throughout Ukraine and initiates the creation of new projects. Premieres with young artists take place in the theatre every year. In 2018, the project “Molodyy Studio. Dramaturge” was launched. The main feature of this studio is its direct connection with the theatre – participants will not only learn the basics of theory and practice for self-realisation in the profession, but also understand the needs and challenges that the theatre is facing now. Currently, three performances in the theatre’s repertoire are based on the proper plays of the Molodyy Studio graduates.
For the sixth successive year, The Molodyy Theatre is a member of the European Theatre Convention, participating in international projects and establishing communications with European theatres and directors. One of the main tasks is being implemented – the integration of Ukrainian theatre into the European cultural space.

Creators

Director – Andrii Bilous
Choreographer – Nina Zmerzla
Composer – Ilya Choporov
Lighting design – Mari Hakopyan

Cast

Oberon/Theseus – Ivan Potapov
Titania/Hippolyta – Daria Hrachova
Robin “Puck” Goodfellow/Elf/Director – Vitalii Bobukh
Lysander – Illia Choporov
Demetrius – Roman Novak
Helena – Ruslana Petriakova
Hermia – Nikoletta Mochani
Actors and forest dwellers – company

Première – 12 November 2019
Language – Ukrainian with English and Polish surtitles