Britain's What's On Event Guide
Midsummer Night's Scream
World Premier Opens At the Barn Theatre in time for Halloween
This Halloween, the Barn Theatre is proud to present a world premier for all the family: a new work, Midsummer Night’s Scream, opening on 17th October 2025.
The show has been crafted to appeal to all ages, from 10 to 100. Set in a holiday camp for artistic teens, it is a contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with music, song, dance, mixed media, and accessible, modernised dialogue, full of comical slang, ripe one-liners, and plenty of puns. Instead of fairies in the forest, there are vampires and zombies galore.
The narrative arc sticks closely to the original, although you don’t need to know that to get delightfully immersed in what’s going on. Four of the campers get distracted from their pottery classes by the traditional teenage obsessions of love, jealousy, and running off in the middle of the night. In nearby woods, they become entangled with a tribe of “emotion vampires”, supernatural creatures who feed not on blood (so retro!) but on other people’s feelings: the more heightened, the tastier! Add to the mix a bunch of kids – Pete Quince and his mates - out in the dark to create a zombie flick. The result is exuberant mayhem.
The play has been co-authored by Adam Long and Allan Plenderleith, two award-winning, professional writers for the stage and TV (they are co-directing the production as well). They are out to combat cultural elitism, especially in relation to performance art.
Through his work as a founding member of The Reduced Shakespeare Company, Adam gained deep experience in bringing the Bard to a wider audience, with shows which had successful runs in both London’s West End and on Broadway. Regarding Midsummer Night’s Scream, Adam says, “if you don’t know Shakespeare, you’ll love it, and if you do, you’ll love it more.”
This Halloween, the Barn Theatre is proud to present a world premier for all the family: a new work, Midsummer Night’s Scream, opening on 17th October 2025.
The show has been crafted to appeal to all ages, from 10 to 100. Set in a holiday camp for artistic teens, it is a contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with music, song, dance, mixed media, and accessible, modernised dialogue, full of comical slang, ripe one-liners, and plenty of puns. Instead of fairies in the forest, there are vampires and zombies galore.
The narrative arc sticks closely to the original, although you don’t need to know that to get delightfully immersed in what’s going on. Four of the campers get distracted from their pottery classes by the traditional teenage obsessions of love, jealousy, and running off in the middle of the night. In nearby woods, they become entangled with a tribe of “emotion vampires”, supernatural creatures who feed not on blood (so retro!) but on other people’s feelings: the more heightened, the tastier! Add to the mix a bunch of kids – Pete Quince and his mates - out in the dark to create a zombie flick. The result is exuberant mayhem.
The play has been co-authored by Adam Long and Allan Plenderleith, two award-winning, professional writers for the stage and TV (they are co-directing the production as well). They are out to combat cultural elitism, especially in relation to performance art.
Through his work as a founding member of The Reduced Shakespeare Company, Adam gained deep experience in bringing the Bard to a wider audience, with shows which had successful runs in both London’s West End and on Broadway. Regarding Midsummer Night’s Scream, Adam says, “if you don’t know Shakespeare, you’ll love it, and if you do, you’ll love it more.”
Fri 17 Oct to Saturday 25 October
Barn Theatre, Handside Lane, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL8 6ST
Midsummer Night's Scream runs at the Barn Theatre from Friday 17th to Saturday 25th October, evenings 8pm, matinee on 25th October, 2.30pm. Tickets cost £16 from Barn Theatre box office on 01707 324300 or online at www.barntheatre.co.uk
Organised by
Barn Theatre Club, Welwyn Garden City
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