A Midsummer Night's Dream by Dubai Drama Group

Brooke Butterworth as Titania, Ciaran O Maoilchiarain as Bottom, Cliff Single as Oberon, and Zain Sheikh as Puck

My last acquaintance with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was back in literature class in school. Dubai Drama Group's production of the famous comedy of errors at DUCTAC last weekend was far removed from the ancient Greek imagery in my young head, though, set as it was in mid-20th century America.

Jennifer Cooper as Helena, Olivia Middleton as Hermia, Ben Franklin as Demetrius, and Stefan Malinowski as Lysander

I was very pleased with both the choice and implementation of the costumes. All the human characters' clothes looked sharp and consistent. Having the royal fairy couple dressed up in East Asian attire was a nice touch, as were their hairstyles and face paint; all of these served well to set their world apart from that of the humans. Set design was also good - minimal, but quality. I'm not sure why the fairy underlings had to manipulate puppets of themselves, but this was executed well too.

Erik Hadden as Theseus, Celia Cookson as Hippolyta, and Hani Yakan as Francis Flute

As for the actors, practically everyone made excellent work of it, and while there were a few dialogue fumbles post-interval (this was the first show, though, so I trust this would have been remedied in subsequent shows), everything went on smoothly.

Toby Masson as Tom Snout

I especially liked Cliff Single's Oberon, and Zain Sheikh gave us an unceasingly energetic performance as Puck. Among the humans, I thought Olivia Middleton as Hermia and Ben Franklin as Demetrius were particularly outstanding. Ciaran O Maoilchiarain's Bottom was brilliant in all three forms, and Toby Masson's portrayal of Tom Snout was hilarious. 

Drama Dubai improv workshop with Anne McMaster

Drama Dubai's Dubai Improv series has been going on for almost a year now, and it's accumulated a fair horde of regular improvvers. The project looks like it's coming into its own; the Dearly Deported troupe has been performing at festivals, and there's a proper theater rehearsal/performance space for us at The Courtyard Playhouse . Most recently, and much to our collective glee, approval from International Theatresports has come through, making Dubai Improv the first (and for now, the only) licensed league of International Theatresports in the whole Middle East.

McMaster setting up the town and chairs game

And on top of all this, we had on Friday a special workshop run by Anne McMaster, a Canadian improv comedian living in Abu Dhabi (trained at Second City, no less). Somehow having maintained her sanity in a place relatively deficient in theater and practically devoid of improv theater, she ably and cheerfully put us through many of the games we had already played (some of which had different Canuckistani names), as well as some new ones, like Hitchhiker.

Feedback

We also spent a good deal of time on characters, especially status. McMaster started by gradually introducing and closely analyzing status signals in body language, followed by various status and character games.

McMaster and Kemsley Dickinson, our regular trainer

While many of the games we played were known to us, we paused more often and for longer intervals for feedback and dissection of our technique. Even though this meant disrupting the improvvers' stage energy - which eventually took its toll over the four-hour workshop - it also meant learning a lot, and from a fresh perspective.

Are You There? by STAR TOO at The Fridge

I caught the late matinee of STAR TOO's most recent play last Saturday, at The Fridge. As with all of the Dubai experimental theater troupe's productions, the play was titled with a question, the sixth and current one being "Are You There?".

Before the play started, bookkeeper Tareq Ghosheh talked introduced the concept and individually-scripted/collectively-directed methodology of STAR TOO. This play was inspired by Jules Verne's  dystopian 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, which itself only got published in the late 20th century, and is considered to be a visionary piece of writing.

The play got off to a great start by taking a page from the novel and introducing the character Michel, played by Jamal Iqbal, in the first scene. Michel is ridiculed for studying the arts in a society that has been completely taken over by technology and commerce to the point where they are the only fields of work that are considered to have any  value. The story was told using minimal and/or symbolic props and costumes, as is the style of experimental theater. The audience also got to vote between an idealistic and realistic ending.

One of the scenes was a cryptic masked dance led by Shereen Saif, and another was a sort of build-a-machine act around a stuffed corpse doll, both of which were good.

The sequence where the actors here interacted over video comm with actors in Paris was, unfortunately, difficult to follow, due to the choppy quality of the connection, and the audio in general was not too great. Part of the "enslaved to technology" theme, perhaps?

The truth officer candidate's sequence was fairly interesting to watch, with its theme of extreme technological essentialism. Sarah Dufayard was good in this one, and I think Drazen Lucic made a sincere effort. Alexandra Vareno's rantologue near the end was also nice.

12 Angry Jurors by Backstage

One of the highlights of this weekend was the Backstage theater group production "12 Angry Jurors", a mixed-gender version of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. Set in the 50s, it's a story of how the dissent of a single juror against an otherwise seemingly cut-and-dried guilty verdict in a homicide case completely turns the verdict around. Directed by Rashmi Kotriwala with assistance from Aswathi Menon, the play was staged over three weekend evenings, with two matinees, at Kilachand Theatre in DUCTAC.

Foreman, and Jurors 2 through 4

Jurors 5 through 8

Jurors 9 through 12

I had not seen the movie, although I was acquainted with a brief synopsis. Therefore, at least for me, it was a gripping experience to watch how each juror was convinced to join the camp opposing the guilty verdict. The characters' own backgrounds and experiences are dragged into the deliberation room, as one flaw after another is found in case against the young man accused of killing his father. The climaxes of both halves was done well, thanks in particular to experienced actor Bryan Mackenzie's fiery portrayal of Juror 3. Relative newcomer Teresa Lundgren played the role of the empathetic Juror 8 pretty well too.

Some other especially strong performances were those of Saad Siddiqi as the composed and logical Juror 4, Arjun Burman as the frustrated foreman, and Alejandro Celli Diaz as the principled immigrant Juror 11. I was also generally pleased with the performance of Juror 5 actor Vanshi Kotru, who, by the way, made her acting debut as the female lead of my own directorial debut back in February. Altogether, the cast of 13 did a great job of it, especially considering that 10 of them had, till then, either acted in short plays or not at all. For a play in which all but one of the cast had to be on stage at all times, doing something or the other, this was impressive.

The directorial efforts of Kotriwala and Menon deserve praise; it's not easy when you have 12 people to monitor at all times, and a lot of dialogue to arrange. Production-wise, I think the 50s setting was done well, except the platform shoes of Juror 6 and the overall somewhat modern appearance of Juror 8. The women otherwise had decade-appropriate skirts and blouses, and the men looked the part as far as the cursory perception of the decade would go.

This was a great end to the 2012-2013 season for Backstage, and I look forward to the next season.

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Another, much more detailed review: http://zimbosinlimbo.blogspot.ae/2013/05/backstage-presents-12-angry-jurors-at.html