Skyes singled out a crowd member to join him on stage. The last time I saw this trick it was Justin Bieber making one girl less lonely (and I’m not sure whether that says more about them or me).
The evolution of Bring Me The Horizon from hardcore metal subgenre specialists to alternative turncoats to rock-star stadium sensation is complete. The next stop may well be the pop charts.
Sykes and co cover themselves in metal and spiky attitude, but their best trick is writing hooks that stay with you even after the ringing in your ears has gone away.
Bring Me The Horizon play Qudos Bank Arena again on Sunday.
THEATRE
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM ★★½
Centennial Park, April 11. Until April 28
Reviewed by Kate Prendergast
Cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Centennial Park.Credit: Ben Fon
Under the chilly black dome of an autumn night, down the grassy steppes of the Centennial Park amphitheatre, a Nickelodeon-esque production of Shakespeare’s 400-plus-year-old Midsummer dream japes. Aside from the goofball merit of some individual performances, the muddled sum of Glenn Elston’s three-hour show’s parts is chintzy, uneven and patience-trying. There is a difference between making the bard more accessible, and swaddling his wit in juvenile faff.
The Duke of Athens here and his betrothed are classless high-rollers, and the four entangled lovers not much more than privileged brats. In mortal and divine realms, the costumes are garish – from gold-threaded couture tracksuits, to Hermia’s hideous hot pink ensemble, to fairy diadems that look like something you’d buy half-drunk off a charlatan vendor at Vivid.
The stage gives a lot of echoing space to the natural surrounds, with tiered scaffolding draped with fake foliage framing the stage. The most impressive production gambit is the vehicles (buggies and boys’ toys) which zoom up and off ramps, at times with a thrillingly reckless bounce.
Zeitgeisty add-ons reach for easy laughs, like when Puck (played by Jonathan Freeman as a kind of witless ‘Aussie Leb’ corsair) lures one of Titania’s servants away with a gigantic Taylor Swift ticket.
The stage gives a lot of echoing space to the natural surrounds of Centennial Park in the Australian Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Credit: Ben Fon
Another grating modernisation, my pet hate in crowd pandering, is the way in which worn-out tracks like James Brown’s I Feel Good, the Pink Panther theme, and Zorba the Greek are summoned and scrapped in just a few bars, all for a cheap jolt of recognition.
The music composition has an uninspired whimsy, making use of xylophone zings. Some cringey choreography involves a conga line and an aborted group dance.
You can still walk away with a good impression of some of the cast. Alex Cooper is a fine buffoon as both a love-struck Lysander and muscle-bulging Tom Snout.
Larissa Teal is a sulky, ditzy Helena. Jackson McGovern goes all in with ‘mummy’s boy with wandering knight aspirations’, and Tane Williams Accra amuses playing cowardly and camp.
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Madeleine Somers (a bumptious Peter Quince) and Elizabeth Brennan (a blokey Red Bull-chugging Bottom) stand out in their gender-flexed roles. The significant edits to Shakespeare’s script are best during the ‘play within a play’ scenes, if mostly in service of bum jokes.
In a tighter, abridged version, this Australian Shakespeare Company’s Dream could be a delight for kids. But what child is out and shivering until 10pm?
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