'Summer Dreaming 1973' is an irreverent adaptation of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Set in the industrial North of England in the 1970's, the play follows the lives and loves of four very different couples as they struggle against the odds to make the course of true love run smooth.

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The long-anticipated betrothal of H.R.H The Duke of Wilmslow to the somewhat reluctant Lady Penelope is a cause for much celebration. A talent completion open to

the local peasantry has been organised to honour the 'happy' couple. The winners are to receive scholarships to RADA (you know, where all the posh kids go.) 

Meanwhile at the Truss and Co Factory, militant shop steward Pete Quince is plotting a subversive theatrical attack on the aristocracy, but his Marxist/Leninist version of 'The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe' is hijacked by talented, but frustrated factory workers Nick Bottom and Frances Flute. What could possibly go wrong?

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Another arranged marriage further down the social scale is causing Hermia Strains a more immediate problem: Her father has promised her and (and everything else) to the Boss's son Donald Truss in order to facilitate his rise in polite society. Hermia is having none of it though and plans to elope with her penniless true love Leroy Sanders through the enchanted Forest of Ardwick.

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Pursued by the furious Donald and his devoted recently-dumped fiancee, Helena Handcart the lovers soon become lost in the dark woods inhabited by Hippies, Druids and that 'Merry Wanderer of the Night 'Robbo Goodstuff.

Hearts are broken and mended before the night is out and Nick Bottom has the trip of his life when he becomes entangled in the feud between Oberon, King of the Hippies and his estranged wife Titania Queen of the Druids.

Summer Dreaming is sprinkled with original songs, magic trees, hallucinogenec plants, a wrestling match and an unexpected  appearance from 'Hedwig'.

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