Bard on the Beach
Fantasy, drama and romance at waterfront Shakespeare Festival
Shakespeare’s perennial hit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is all about magic- fairies, sprites and nymphs whose meddling creates chaos, comedy and romance in the world of humans. But don’t expect director Dean Paul Gibson’s version to conform to some storybook vision of magic when the production opens the 17th season at Bard on the Beach in Vancouver’s Vanier Park.
Dramatic outdoor backdrop on Bard mainstage (David Blue)Gibson, who directed an electrifying Hamlet and a dead-on take of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for sold-out crowds last summer, is determined to rethink the look of magic for a 21st-century A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Envision a circus act that stepped out of a Victorian dressing room and onto a landscape created by architect Frank Gehry (Experience Music Project, Seattle; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao), and you will have some notion of the post-modern colour and shape Gibson’s design team will unfold in the big Bard tent.
Measure for Measure, Shakespeare’s powerful drama that exposes hypocracies in a tale of lust and justice in Vienna, is directed by Studio 58’s Kathryn Shaw, who makes her Bard debut this year. It opens June 17, also on the mainstage with its dazzling backdrop of mountains, sea and sky.
Opening July 5 on the smaller Douglas Campbell Stage, Bard patrons are treated to Michael Shamata’s production of The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare’s rarely produced late-period romance where magic eventually redeems a jealous rage with tragic consequences. Also making his directorial debut is veteran Bard actor David Mackay, who projects Shakespeare’s Trojan War drama, Troilus and Cressida, into an American Civil War setting, opening July 14.
For more information or to buy tickets click onto www.bardonthebeach.org or call 604.739.0559 or 877.739.0559 (outside Vancouver). Ask about Special Events prices.
The shows run to late September but it’s worth planning ahead as Bard sold an incredible 92 percent of capacity last year. Book now if you want to get in on the popular Bard-B-Q & Fireworks nights (July 26, 29, Aug. 2, 5) and the Celebrating Red & White wine event (a blend of fine wine and excellent British cheese with great theatre: Aug. 19).
