William Shakespeare's
as presented by
the fringe
6 performances between 4 and 14 March 2008
Kleines Haus der Stadthalle in Bayreuth
Tanzschule Scholz in Bamberg
Helene-Lange-Gymnasium in Fürth
Director Hans-Dieter Scholz
Assistant Directors Romina Heinrich, Anne Eisenhuth, Jana Pittel
Treasurer Marlene Münzel
After presenting the play in 2000 and having a marvellous success with it, it was a fascinating undertaking to produce the same play again - but totally different. It was not only different actors - it was a totally revised concept, driven by the impulse to show how modern and timeless Shakespeare has always been, and making full use of all our actors' talents. It worked wonderfully and attracted more than 1,000 spectators in Bayreuth alone, making it one of the most successful productions of the fringe ever.
London, 2008. We are in London's Greek quarter, Southwark, not very far from Shakespeare's old theatre, the Globe. Theseus controls the whole of Southwark as godfather of the Greek mafia, and he is about to marry Hippolyta, the leader of a modern Goth tribe he has beaten in fair streetfight. As nothing may happen without his saying so, his manager Egeus brings along his daughter Hermia and her two suitors Lysander and Demetrius. Egeus has promised his daughter to Demetrius, but she refuses to marry him. Instead, she is enamoured of the stylish young poet Lysander. Egeus insists on the fullfilment of his privilege as a father - that he decides whom she must marry. Otherwise, he wants her death. Theseus is less harsh. He offers a third possibility - she might become a nun. As Hermia doesn't like any of these choices, she and Lysander decide to take the underground at night and run away from London. But before they do so, they tell her best friend Helena, who, unfortunately, is madly in love with Demetrius, whom she stalks and whom she tells all about it.
So when Hermia and Lysander meet at the underground station nearby, Demetrius follows them, and Helena follows him - little knowing what adventures await them all during that night. Two other groups of people move about the underground at the same time - a group of Greek craftsmen who want to rehearse a play unobserved, and another, stranger group of travellers, who have only just arrived from India and who call themselves "fairies". A night full of wild fantasies, strange appearances, and literal mistakes occur - some of which derive from improper use of a possibly illegal liquid.
The fringe thus transfered Shakespeare's Dream to modern London, had the fairies appear and even dance as Indians in Bollywood style, and the forest around Athens, which never existed anyway, turned into a London underground station called Duke's Court. The fact that the Royal Shakespeare Company only a short time ago published a new London underground map providing all stations with new Shakespearian names, made this move even more logical.
The production owes a lot of thanks to the craftsmanship of the stage designers and workers Jacqueline Fulger, Olga Bartuli, Moritz Hacker, and Rebekka Jesch, and to our choreographer Kai Uwe Scholz, from the Tanzschule Scholz in Bamberg. Many parents contributed with sheer workforce and transportation help, and also the Möbelhaus Becher again. The Elternbeirat of the GMG and the Kulturamt der Stadt Bayreuth allowed us financial support, which made life and production a lot easier. Thank you to them all. Furthermore, costumes were organised by Vanessa Heydasch in India and tailor-made for the Indian ladies by Ulrike Scholz.
When Marlene Münzel as Puck opened the play on the first night, few people knew what to expect, and even fewer people knew what was hidden under that jacket, shirt and tie. Puck would be taking them into a very special and modern fairyland.
She presented the Amazon Queen Hippolyta (Olga Bartuli) as a modern Goth gangleader, who had been beaten und forced to marry Theseus (Nick Hagemann), the godfather of the Southwark Greek community.
Theseus then has to decide about Hermia's future (Laura Busert, here with Sergej Moor, her lover Lysander).
The other couple with problems are the notorious womanizer Demetrius (Andreas Zahn) and the notorious stalker Helena (Jacqueline Fulger). They all lose their way in the underground at night. There the tempers rise, partly because Puck lays a charm on the wrong eyes.
The fairies, led by Oberon (Tobias von Knobelsdorff) and Titania (Romina Heinrich) quarrel about an Indian who never appears - in the self-same underground station, where the lovers lose their way, and where a group of rude mechanicals rehearse a play for Theseus' wedding day.
(Peter Glaser, Moritz Hacker, Tina Schneider and Rebekka Jesch behind Anselm Dannecker and Alisa Zaiat as mechanicals during our performance in Bamberg)
Puck then transforms Bottom, the acting weaver, into an ass, which the charmed Titania is forced to fall in love with.
(Romina Heinrich as Titania)
(Anne Eisenhuth as Titania)
Romina Heinrich as Titania with Anselm Dannecker as Bottom, surrounded by fairies. Below: Anne Eisenhuth as our other Titania.
Stephanie Kohl as Helena and Sandra Götz as Hermia during their underground quarrel.
Vanessa Heydasch provided a brilliant second Puck, here in the Bamberg performance. The Bamberg photos were taken by Andreas Fingas, who played Oberon eight years ago.
Puck (Vanessa Heydasch) with Puck (Marlene Münzel), when she helped out as Hippolyta.
Theseus' wedding to Hippolyta rounded the play off, and the mechanicals' show of Pyramus and Thisbe was the undoubted highlight of the play.
Bottom as Pyramus (right) woos his beloved Thisbe (Dennis Mauthe) through Wall's (Tina Schneider) chink. Just like Hermia and Lysander, they decide to run away. But a lion (Peter Glaser) attacks Thisbe and stains her mantle with blood.
When Pyramus then finds the mantle by moonlight (Rebekka Jesch), he believes his Thisbe dead and commits suicide.
Finally, Puck lets all the other fairies enter the palace and they dance through the night.
The mystery of the four Hippolytas
Strangely enough, the six performances needed four different Hippolytas. After the opening night, Olga Bartuli (Hippo 1) fell ill. After the second performance, our second trained Hippolyta, Jana Pittel, fell ill, too, with a high fever. So Anne Eisenhuth volunteered to take the role until one of them would return. Unfortunately, both didn't recover before the end of the production. In order to make it possible for Anne to play her own bigger role as Titania at least twice, our opening night Puck Marlene Münzel offered to play Hippolyta as Hippo 4 in Bamberg. They all did it wonderfully and professionally, and the whole group wish to thank them for their effort.
Olga Bartuli (Hippo 1)
Jana Pittel (Hippo 2)
Anne Eisenhuth (Hippo 3)
Marlene Münzel (Hippo 4)
Stage design and costumes
The stage design was planned by Jacqueline Fulger and Olga Bartuli, and it was executed by Moritz Hacker. Jacqueline Fulger drew the publicity poster, while Olga Bartuli supplied the posters for the underground station walls. Moritz Hacker executed all the woodwork after their collective planning. Many other members of the group, chiefly Rebekka Jesch, Sandra Götz, Anne Eisenhuth and Marlene Münzel helped with the painting work.
The stage design coming into being - in our rehearsal room. Moritz Hacker had a lot of work to build the needed bench and to prepare the walls, then it took three afternoons to paint them until they looked like this:
The costumes for the male elves were imported from India by Vanessa Heydasch and her family during the Christmas holidays:
The costumes for Puck, Titania, and the female fairies, however, were tailor-made by Ulrike Scholz for the fringe, and they took some time and investment in order to fit and look as well as they did:
The responsible people:
Sergej Moor, Laura Busert, Tobias von Knobelsdorff, Anselm Dannecker, Marlene Münzel, Hans-Dieter Scholz, Romina Heinrich, Jacqueline Fulger, Andreas Zahn, Olga Bartuli
Ulrike and Elisabeth Scholz
Moritz Hacker in front of his stage design
choreographer Kai Uwe Scholz (left) and director Hans-Dieter Scholz (centre)