An African Dream

A traditional African re-interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in pre-colonial Malawi (when it was known as Nyasaland), this is an artitistic fusion of two cultures, with Shakespeare's words as the vehicle for a celebration of real Africa and Africans. Full of colour, dancing, drumming, singing and laughter, the show has been a massive hit.

Fresh and inventive, this is like no other Midsummer Night's Dream - the costumes are pure Malawi, with bantu beads and beautiful feathered headdresses.

The set was painted by Massa Lemu, one of Malawi's formemost young artists, and new music in traditional style was commissioned from the renowned musician and actor Baba Twaya Sanudi who creates an atmosphere of wild magic using traditional instruments for both music and sound effects.

Oberon and Titania are played as ancient forest spirits, inspired by Mwali, the Spirit Wife of the Mankhamba shrine and Chismphi, which is the name of both God in the Whirlwind and the rain priest. Shakespeare's faires become ancestral spirits in the shape of baboons: part human, part animal; Puck a human manifestation of Thunga, the mythical snake which is an ancient symbol of fertility going back to the Bathwa.