»THE PLAY OF THE HOUR« IS HOW BARBARA FREY DESCRIBES SHAKESPEARE’S BRILLIANT AND PROFOUND MASTERPIECE »A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM«, WHICH HAS BEEN ENCHANTING AND BAFFLING AUDIENCES FOR OVER 400 YEARS.

»The play of the hour« is how its director, the Ruhrtriennale’s Artistic Director Barbara Frey, describes Shakespeare’s brilliant and profound masterpiece A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has been enchanting and baffling audiences for over 400 years. This poetic force of nature defies every category of genre. The text shifts in shape, meandering through a range of forms from court drama to broad farce, from a dream play to a philosophical treatise, from comedy to tragedy. Nothing here retains its original appearance. This is deeply unsettling. We are confronted with the shock of unpredictability. We watch as the characters lose control and experience it ourselves, recognising the brutality of unreliable emotions. We see how love fades and turns into contempt and conversely how ignorance gives way to sudden outbursts of passion, we get lost along with the young lovers chasing each other through the forest at night, that restricts our vision and blurs clear distinctions such as that between madness and reality.  more…