The Woman in the Moon

This is the first professional run in four centuries of this neglected but extraordinary 'dream' play by John Lyly, the first great playwright of Elizabethan theatre. Mixing astrology, myth, magic and farce, Lyly sets his play in Utopia, and boldly rewrites Genesis – here the supreme creator is female, Nature herself. When four shepherds beg for a mate she breathes life into Pandora, the first woman. Jealous of her excellence, the Seven Planets take turns to revenge themselves as she is pursued by the four love-struck men, causing chaos. With lovers chasing though the woods at night in a desire-driven frenzy, while experiencing dizzying emotional transformations at the hands of unseen supernatural forces, it clearly inspired Shakespeare's own Midsummer Night's Dream.