Ein Sommernachtstraum

A group of people enter the stage, immediately recognisable as teachers. They rehearse Shakespeare’s iconic play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from the late 16th century, where four young lovers stumble into an enchanting forest just days before the ruling couple of Athens is to be married. Apart from the feuding fairy couple Oberon and Titania and the sprite Puck, this forest also holds magic potions that change identities, blur realities and create spaces of possibility. More and more, the teachers commit to their acting, their representation grows more skilful, their imaginations soar and the evening becomes even more fun for everyone.
Antú Romero Nunes and Theater Basel’s company, who show an extraordinary versatility, perform at their peak. The stage gradually transforms into a magic forest. And an elaborate concept of costumes and music changes the theatre space into a fantasy world which asks the question of what is illusion and what is reality in its most inherent metier: in the theatre.

Statement of the Jury
There is it, the overwhelming, laugh-until-you-cry funny comedy: If “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the favourite of all amateur dramatics clubs – then let’s have an amateur dramatics club playing it. Director Antú Romero Nunes transforms the acting company of Theater Basel into a places a staff of teachers full of quirks and foibles and gives them free rein to act. And how they act – with such relish, such skills! The uptight history teacher turns into Helena, the principal and his wife become Oberon and Titania. And the shy ethics teacher first transforms into the doddering Egeus and then into a Puck who not only delights in confusion but also has kleptomaniac tendencies. The teachers immerse themselves ever more deeply into the play and become more and more professional, they move ever more deeply into the forest, into imagination, into the dream, the subconscious. The seven actors and the musician are enveloped in more and more curtains – their awakening will be terrible. This “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a theatre that celebrates itself, challenges itself, mocks itself. Great fun!

Tojuror Valeria Heintges’ video statement in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library

Programmebooklet (pdf, 2.4 MB)