Magical Mahonia

See how the backlit sunlight catches the ice on the flower.

Talking of magic, I was entranced by last night's performance of Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at Theatre Royal in Nottingham. At the end, I felt enveloped by its ambience.

I hadn't expected Oberon to be played by a counter-tenor. He and Tytania wore glittery metallic looking costumes. As with the humans, Tytania shed her outer garments as the play went on, but only for a while. Oberon remained sinister. Puck wore nothing but some red shorts and tights adorned with imitation leg hair.

The atmosphere was heavy with sexual innuendo counter balanced by the children's chorus that looked as if they had walked out of the Village of the Damned with blond hair, white shorts and t-shirts and little black wings. They never smiled.

There's so much more I could write, but I have to go out.