Re-met by moonlight: A Midsummer Night's Dream returns to London's Bridge theatre
Felicity Montagu, centre, plays Quince
Emmanuel Akwafo (Bottom), David Moorst (Puck) and Dominic Semwanga (Flute) in rehearsals
David Moorst with Susannah Fielding in the production, designed by Bunny Christie
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an immersive production with some audience members up close and personal
Emmanuel Akwafo, right, with JJ Feild, who doubles as Oberon and Theseus
A Midsummer Night's Dream has movement direction by Arlene Phillips
David Moorst (Puck), top, Divesh Subaskaran (Lysander) and Paul Adeyefa (Demetrius)
There is co-direction and co-movement direction by James Cousins
The costumes are designed by Christina Cunningham, with additional outfits by Bunny Christie
Susannah Fielding and JJ Feild
A Midsummer Night's Dream has lighting by Bruno Poet
The composer is Grant Olding, with sound design by Paul Arditti
Emmanuel Akwafo (Bottom) and Hilson Agbangbe (Starveling) in the production, with fight direction by Kate Waters
The hair and make-up designer is Susanna Peretz
A Midsummer Night's Dream is at the Bridge theatre, London, until 20 August
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Allan Ahlberg obituary
The children's writer Allan Ahlberg, who has died aged 87, could turn his hand to most genres, including fiction, poetry, picture books, fairy tales and comic-strip humour. He was the author of more than 150 books, including the hugely popular Each Peach Pear Plum and The Jolly Postman. Ahlberg had been working as a primary teacher for 10 years when his wife, Janet, an artist, asked him to write a children's story for her to illustrate. Later he described that moment as feeling as if he were a clockwork toy and 'she had turned the key'. Their first book together, Here Are the Brick Street Boys, was published in 1975, and the Ahlbergs went on to become one of the most successful writer/illustrator partnerships in children's literature. A very close couple, they enjoyed an intimacy that also characterised their working lives. One secret of their success lay in the dynamic relationship they created between word and picture; another was their joint ability to view the world as if through the eyes of a child. They shared a gentle, quirky sense of humour that was conveyed with great warmth. When their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1980, her various stages of growing up provided further inspiration for their work. Perhaps the most memorable volume from this period was The Baby's Catalogue (1982), a simple but brilliant idea based on the fact that babies loved spotting other babies in catalogues and magazines. Each Peach Pear Plum (1978) was about as perfect as a picturebook could be, and the deserving winner of their first Kate Greenaway medal, with its simple 'I spy' game and a rhyme based on playground skipping games and nursery rhyme characters. Peepo! (1981) was a book to accompany the familiar 'peek-a-boo' that adults play with babies. The Ahlbergs raised the game a notch or two by adding a hole to literally peep through, running throughout the book, and setting it during the second world war, with fascinating period detail. Ahlberg described the visual aspect of this book as being based on his memories of his own poor, Black Country childhood, in a small house with tin bath and outside privy. 'I am the Peepo baby,' as he put it. He would return to that world in 2013 in the prose and poetry recollections of The Bucket: Memories of an Inattentive Childhood. The Jolly Postman (1986, followed by The Jolly Christmas Postman and The Jolly Pocket Postman) was the Ahlbergs' masterpiece, and the Postman series as a whole their biggest commercial success, winning the couple their second Kate Greenaway medal and the Emil/Kurt Maschler award, with sales of over 6m copies worldwide. Children, teachers and critics alike were mesmerised by the book's originality; this wonderfully playful text changed forever the scope of what picturebooks could aspire to. Although sophisticated paper engineering was nothing new, no one had come up with such imaginative 'props' within a picturebook before. It required active reading from the book's young audience, as it not only demanded physical interaction, but also expected them to draw on knowledge of traditional nursery rhymes and fairy tales. It used the widest and most inventive range of text-types up to that point – from letters, postcards, invitations and catalogues to tiny books, newspapers, recipes and advertisements. While children were delighting in the book, they were simultaneously embracing the wider culture of the society they lived in. Ahlberg's time working in primary schools had given him the opportunity to observe children, and he put this knowledge to good use in all his books, especially his poetry, where one can detect the viewpoint of the benevolent teacher. Please Mrs Butler (1983) was his earliest collection and is still the most popular, though he wrote excellent further volumes, illustrated by Fritz Wegner and Charlotte Voake. His Collected Poems was published in 2008. Born in Croydon, south London, Allan was the son of a single mother. After being adopted by a working-class family – his adoptive parents worked as an office cleaner and a labourer – he grew up in Oldbury, near Birmingham, and, he said, 'scraped' in to the local grammar school. A lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion, he initially hoped to play football as a career. He met Janet Hall at teacher training college in Sunderland and they married in 1969. Despite living most of his life elsewhere (for many years near Bath), Ahlberg was always happy to drop into Black Country dialect. He was very proud of the 2011 exhibition of the couple's work at the Public arts centre in Sandwell, near Oldbury, which included children's responses to their books. What's in the Book? (2006), a show for Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle, described the Ahlbergs' working method: 'I do the words (takes me about a day) and Janet does the pictures (takes her about six months). Then we send the words and the pictures to the publisher and the publisher sends us some money. And I get half for my day's work, and Janet gets half for her six months' work: the basis of a happy marriage …' Allan was devastated when Janet died of cancer in 1994, but found a therapeutic way of addressing the terrible loss by putting together a tribute volume as a private publication, Janet's Last Book (1997), based on his personal selection of her work. The Adventures of Bert (2001) and A Bit More Bert (2002) were illustrated by Raymond Briggs, and The Runaway Dinner (2006) and The Pencil (2013) by Bruce Ingman. Jessica went on to become a successful author in her own right, and father and daughter collaborated on several books, including The Goldilocks Variations (2012). In 2014, Ahlberg was set to receive the Booktrust lifetime achievement award, but decided to turn it down because sponsorship came from Amazon. When his fellow authors Philip Pullman and Mark Haddon heard about this, they decided to create an alternative, a compilation of tributes from other writers and illustrators which they called the Shoestring award, in appreciation of the Ahlbergs' work. Ahlberg married for a second time, to Vanessa Clarke, his editor at Walker Books, and became stepfather to her two daughters, Saskia and Johanna. They, and Jessica, survive him. Allan Ahlberg, children's writer, born 5 June 1938; died 29 July 2025 Morag Styles died in January 2025.
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
The secrets of Lindsay Lohan's youthful face revealed as she wows at Freakier Friday premiere in London
LINDSAY Lohan beams at the premiere of film sequel Freakier Friday — and stuns fans with her youthful appearance. The US actress, 39, joined co-star Jamie Lee Curtis in London's Leicester Square — 22 years after they appeared in Freaky Friday. 7 7 Lindsay dazzled last night in a sequin gown while Jamie, 66, wore a red cape dress. The younger star credits laser facials, carrot juice and Botox for keeping her looking young — although some fans are convinced she has gone under the knife. One wrote: ' Lindsay Lohan looks fabulous. "I need to know who is her surgeon. "She looks refreshed but natural.' Another added: 'Are we all in agreement that Lindsay Lohan's surgeon absolutely did amazing? "She looks beautiful.' Lindsay has insisted she has never been under the knife, saying: 'I'm like, 'When? With what time? Where?'.' After moving to Dubai in 2014, she met future husband Bader Shammas and they now have a two-year-old son, Luai. She also became pals with Dr Radmila Lukian, a dermatologist who offers a non-surgical facelift. In 2003's Freaky Friday, Lindsay and Jamie played a mum and daughter who switched bodies. The follow-up is out on Friday. 7 7 7 7
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Adam Collard blames himself for fiancée Laura Woods' miscarriage as he says tragedy was 'bad karma for his love rat past' ahead of Celebrity SAS
Adam Collard blamed himself after his fiancée Laura Woods suffered a miscarriage, attributing the tragedy to 'bad karma from his love rat past.' The reality TV personality, 29, first appeared on Love Island back in 2018 before returning to the show in 2022 and enjoying a stint on Celebs Go Dating. He will now be put through his paces on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins as he is put to the test in a number of gruelling Special Forces challenges. Due to his dating show history, 'jumping from girl to girl' and 'upsetting too many people,' Adam believes the tragic loss was a consequence for his bad behaviour. Speaking on the show, which is set to air on Sunday, he admitted: 'I know it's a terrible way to look at it, but I felt like it was bad karma for me being on dating shows and upsetting too many people.' 'I felt like that was some high power's way of being like, 'Well, there you go, that's what you have to carry'. The TV personality, 29, appeared on Love Island in 2018 before returning in 2022 and enjoying a stint on Celebs Go Dating. He will now be put through his paces on Celebrity SAS Adam added: 'I was just a cocky little p***k, being a love rat jumping from girl to girl. I want to show I'm not that man any more.' Explaining his reasons for joining the cast, he said: 'On a personal level, I wanted to test myself mentally. 'I had a lot of stuff going on before I went on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, and I've got to be honest but credit to the show, I actually think it had the most positive impact on my mental health.' Laura and Adam began dating in October 2023 and announced that they were expecting their first child in 2024 and their son Leo was born in April 2025. Their relationship came a year after Adam famously returned to Love Island in 2022 in a bid to meet his dream woman. He previously caused chaos on the show in 2018 when he coupled up with four different women - Kendall, Rosie, Zara, and Darylle. While he ultimately went on to have a relationship with the now Strictly Come Dancing star Zara McDermott, they split after seven months together. In 2022, he once again found himself a girlfriend on the show, Paige Thorne, but their romance was short-lived and they quickly split after leaving the show. He caused chaos on Love Island in 2018 when he coupled up with four different women - but ultimately went on to have a relationship with Zara McDermott (pictured in 2018) Paige later accused Adam of cheating and he admitted that he used her to enjoy a longer stint on Love Island, stating he 'completely chose the right person to stay on the show'. Adam went on to date Kate Moss's sister Lottie Moss after they were set up on Celebs Go Dating, but the romance ended after a month. This was reportedly the result of Adam sleeping with another woman after he had been intimate with Lottie. She said at the time: 'I hope he finds happiness – deep down in that cold shell of a soul.' Adam's relationship with Laura has been much more successful from the get-go, with the former reality star describing the presenter as 'the one'. The official line-up of the upcoming series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins includes an S Club 7 singer, Premier League footballers and a woman dubbed the 'most hated in Britian'. Series seven of the much-loved Channel 4 show will return to our screens on August 3 2025. Fans will be treated to eight one-hour episodes every Sunday and Monday, which will see a group of 14 famous faces take on a 'gruelling phase of the Special Forces selection'. Chief instructor Billy Billingham and his team Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver will also be returning to our screens to put the celebrities through it.
