The all-male cast brings an enormous amount of fun to the Bard's works at the Ellerslie Racecourse.
The Pop-up Globe is back! Looking a touch more refined amid the flower beds of Ellerslie Racecourse the venture retains its informal, makeshift vibe with scaffold towers locking together to mark out the dimensions of a building that once housed a theatrical revolution.
Modern scholarship has made us acutely
aware of Shakespeare's rich language and thematic complexity but the Pop-up Globe reminds us that the Bard also knew a thing or two about entertainment.
UK Director Tom Mallaburn brings an enormous sense of fun to a production that has pop culture colliding with traditional folk music, a mash-up of accents and robust buffoonery that feeds off the boisterous energy of the groundlings standing in front of the stage.
Judicious cuts to text allow time for improvised banter with the audience, a finely choreographed wrestling match, a lip-synched tribute to Titanic and raucous cameos by a frolicking mob of sheep.
All of which seems perfectly in tune with the themes of a play in which Shakespeare appears to be simultaneously mocking and celebrating the irresistible silliness of love.
