What do you get when you cross Shakespeare, garden gnomes, rubber chickens, questionable singing and boys gallivanting across stage in brightly coloured pantaloons?

Why it’s The Popular Mechanicals, of course!

Last week the Old Chapel Theatre was transformed into Shakespearean England as part of the Senior School Production of this old new play.

Much in the same spirit of Tom Stoppard’s better known Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Popular Mechanicals tells the other story from A Midsummer Night’s Dream—that of Nick Bottom and his fellow tradesmen (“the mechanicals”).

Written by Tony Taylor and Keith Robinson and originally directed by Geoffrey Rush at the Belvoir Street Theatre in 1987, the story of Bottom and his men was brought to Newington with the help of Director Ms Tamara Smith, Mr Bernard Harris and Ms Rosalind McKenzie, as well as an ensemble of willing (and very able) young thespians.

The production was a hilariously post-modern examination of both Shakespeare and theatre itself, intertwining vaudevillian humour with clever wordplay and some inventive use of the aforementioned rubber chickens.

Big thanks and congratulations must go to all the boys and staff involved for such a successful Senior Production, particularly Tamara Smith for conceptualising the play from start to finish. For those who missed it—bad luck—but don’t fret because at the very least you can feast your eyes on some delicious photos from the play below!