Sonho de uma Noite de Verao (Midsummer’s Night Dream)
Sonho de uma Noite de Verão – uma intromissão no mundo de Shakespeare (Midsummer Night’s Dream – an intromission in the world of Shakespeare), directed by Fernando Mello da Costa, is the first Shakespearean stage adaptation from award winning community based theatre company, Nós do Morro. Declaring to be an “intromission” into the world of Shakespeare, the Brazilian performance recreates the atmosphere of love, fantasy and dream present in the original text. The blurring of the boundaries between reality and fantasy is creatively introduced before the actual play starts, in the foyer of the theatre: the actors, dressed as beggars, distribute handwritten pamphlets to the audience, inviting them to the performance. In a set where ingenious rotating columns formed by woven ropes divide the stage and from which hang colorful handkerchiefs, bottles and other objects, the music is played and sung by the actors to establish the festive mood of the play. One significant “intromission” by Nós do Morro was to sacrifice the Shakespearean text in other to accommodate a modern Brazilian vernacular. Another similar move was to create doubles of Puck and Oberon.
Sonho de uma Noite de Verão – uma intromissão no mundo de Shakespeare (Midsummer Night’s Dream – an intromission in the world of Shakespeare) was staged in 2004 in Rio de Janeiro (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil) and São Paulo (Teatro Augusta)
Director: Fernando Mello da Costa
Adaptation: Luiz Paulo Corrêa e Castro
Music and Musical Direction: Gabriel Moura, Pedro Luis and Rodrigo Maranhão
Director of Movement: Johayne Ildefonso
Cast: Careca Martins, Cida Costa, Babú Santana, Cintia Rosa, Rosana Barros, Wendel Barros, Helio Rodrigues, Marcello Melo, Guti Fraga, Mary Sheyla de Paula, Roberta Santiago, Daniele Andrade, Cida Costa, Jota Farias, Edson Oliveira, Pierre Santos and Cristiano Lima.
Background links:
Nós do Morro homepage (Portuguese)
Article written by Cristiane Busato Smith, “Nós do Morro: Voice, Art, and Empowerment”
Click here to read Brazilian critic Barbara Heliodora’s review on the production
Click here to read a digitalized book about Nós do Morro (Portuguese): Meu Destino era o Nós do Morro by Luciana, Bezerra. (Bezerra, Luciana. Meu Destino era o Nós do Morro. Rio de Janeiro: Aeroplano, 2010)
Click here to watch a YouTube video on Nós do Morro (Portuguese w/ English subtitles).
Production notes provided by Cristiane Busato Smith
Sonho de uma Noite de Verao (Midsummer’s Night Dream)
Pyramus and Thisbe
The Mechanicals perform the play about Pyramus and Thisbe before the Duke and his guests. With English subtitles. more
The Mechanicals perform the play about Pyramus and Thisbe before the Duke and his guests.
With English subtitles.
Behind the scenes
A behind the scenes look at the production Sonho de uma Noite de Verao directed by Fernando Mello da Costa in 2004.
A behind the scenes look at the production Sonho de uma Noite de Verao directed by Fernando Mello da Costa in 2004. less
