Pre-performance reception and lecture entitled “Midsummer-Night Queens”, presented by the McGillicuddy Humanities Center.
UMaine professor and Stephen E. King Chair Caroline Bicks, a Shakespeare scholar, will conduct the lecture about Shakespeare’s magical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which features an abundance of queens, including an off-stage appearance by Elizabeth I herself. Dr. Bicks will discuss the thematic issues that circulate around these formidable females and that inform the play’s larger explorations of love, gender, and power.
6-6:15pm reception
6:15-6:45pm lecture
7 pm – Live broadcast of the show from the National Theater in London
The lecture and reception will take place in Bodwell Lounge on the 3rd floor of the Collins Center for the Arts.
About the play: A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences.
Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy will be captured live from the Bridge Theatre in London. Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Oliver Chris (Green Wing, NT Live: Young Marx), David Moorst (NT Live: Allelujah!) and Hammed Animashaun (The Barber Shop Chronicles) lead the cast as Titania, Oberon, Puck and Bottom.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will build on the success of his immersive staging of Julius Caesar (NT Live 2018). The Bridge Theatre will become a forest – a dream world of flying fairies, contagious fogs and moonlight revels, surrounded by a roving audience following the action on foot. More at: https://www.collinscenterforthearts.com/event/nt-live-broadcast-a-midsummer-nights-dream/