Assembly @ St Andrew Square, Edinburgh
A lusty adaptation by Avenue Q’s co-creator is performed with verve by Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s daughter and her fellow students
Not every undergraduate Shakespeare show at the Edinburgh fringe makes headlines but this one brings stardust by association. Suri Noelle, the 20-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, appears with her fellow drama students from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. However, it’s a bit of an event regardless – the UK premiere of a “modern translation” of A Midsummer Night’s Dream adapted by Jeff Whitty, a Tony award-winner for the riotous Avenue Q.
That show, newly returned to the West End, is populated by some horny puppets and Whitty’s Dream is similarly frisky. Often more lustful than lovestruck, Noelle’s Helena prowls after Demetrius (Logan Yao) on all fours, Puck (Eli Strain) bares his nipples during the “up and down” speech and when Titania (Siahvash Marshall) instructs the fairies to show Bottom some courtesies, it fuels an orgy.
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