“I am in love with this part, it is one of the most beautiful languages ever staged. My goal is to make Shakespeare rather different but especially Albanian,” says US director Blondell
TIRANA, May 29 – Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will make its premiere this week in a special performance by a cast of Albanian actors and renowned American John Blondell as director. Scheduled to make its premiere on Friday May 31 at the National Theatre in Tirana, many people’s favorite Shakespeare comedy comes after three months of rehearsals under Blondell’s direction.
With costume and set design by Macedonia’s Blagoj MIcevski and music by Kosovo’s Trimor Dhomi the comedy stars an Albania cast of young actors including Ervin Bejleri, Klea Konomi, Vasjan Lami.
Directed by United States’ John Blondell, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be the great premiere the Albanian National Theatre plans to stage in the first half of this year.
“It is the first experience for me to stage Shakespeare in another country in the national language. The reason is because we are searching for an unknown land, or something new and fresh,”
says Blondell. “I am in love with this part, it is one of the most beautiful languages ever staged. My goal is to make Shakespeare rather different but especially Albanian,” adds Blondell.
Blondell’s cooperation with the Albanian National Theatre emerged last year when Albania participated in London’s Globe to Globe festival with part II of Shakespeare’s Henry VI. Blondell was the director of the Macedonian theatre performing Henry VI’s part III.
John Blondell is Professor of Theatre Arts at Westmont College. He is co-founder and director of the Lit Moon Theatre Company, an award-winning international theatre ensemble, and founder of the Lit Moon World Theater Festival, an international theatre festival produced yearly in Santa Barbara. In 2006, he created the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival, the only international Shakespeare Festival in the United States, and one of seven in the world.
Believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta.
The play will premiere on Friday May 31 and stage for two other consecutive evenings on June 1 and 2 at 20.00.
Short synopsis
A Midsummer Night’s Dream deals with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust, disappointment, confusion, and marriage. The plot focuses on three parallel stories: the trials and experiences of two sets of lovers camping in a magical forest, the world of the Fairy King and Queen and their elves, and a group of rough craftsmen attempting to stage a production of “Pyramus and Thisby” for the wedding of the Duke of Athens.
Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. To escape the arranged marriage, she and Lysander elope into the woods. Demetrius follows them, and Helena, who nurses an unrequited passion for him, pursues him. A love quadrangle develops among the young lovers when mischievous Puck plays Cupid. “The course of true love never did run smooth,” says Lysander. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors rehearses a badly written play in the woods, and soon all find their lives changed by the doings of Oberon and Titania, the warring king and queen of the fairies. Magic, action, love and humor are the ingredients for this unforgettable spell.
