Written by Scottish playwright David Greig, and set in his hometown of Edinburgh, Midsummer‘s Melbourne season comes twenty years after his first play was produced in Glasgow. Since then Greig has been commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal National Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company – some of Britain’s, and indeed the world’s, best theatre companies.
The play is centered around the long days and short nights of midsummer weekend as experienced by Robert…Rob…Bob, a petty thief on the cusp of his thirty-fifth birthday, and Helena, a divorce lawyer who may have a rather large problem. Bob spends his days reading Dostoyevsky and toiling away in the employ of local crook Big Tiny Tam while all the time dreaming of escaping to Bruges with his guitar and busking for a living. Helena, treated as a negligent aunt and an irresponsible sister at best by her family, is in a relationship in a married man in-between assisting other couples in ending theirs, and is over feeling alone. Needless to say, life hasn’t worked out exactly as they’d planned.
The two wind up together by chance in a basement wine bar – you know, those ones where lawyers hang out – and to Bob’s suprise quickly end up in bed. The rest of the weekend flies past in a series of romantic adventures and not-technically-legal escapades which will make up the time of their lives. Midsummer is hilarious and heartfelt, excellently performed by Ella Caldwell and Ben Prendergast and competently directed by John Kachoyan, Director in Residence at Bell Shakespeare.
