A COMPANY formed to develop a unique approach to Shakespeare are bringing two groundbreaking productions to Lighthouse, Poole. Watermill Theatre’s Watermill Ensemble will be staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth at the arts centre from September 24 to 28.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the audience are invited into a world of dreams and desire for a soulful, spell-binding comedy that fizzes with magic and a large dose of chaos in the enchanted Athenian woods as secrets, love and mistaken identities collide.

Fusing actor musicianship with one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, the Watermill Ensemble cast their spell performing the intoxicating soulful sounds of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday live on stage.

Meanwhile passion, ambition and desire ignite in the company’s treatment of Macbeth. Fuelled by greed, ambition and desire, Macbeth’s desperation to survive is reflected in the fierce reverberations of Johnny Cash and The Rolling Stones.

Billy Postlethwaite is playing Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title role in Macbeth. He says he grew up listening to his father, the late Pete Postlethwaite, reciting Shakespeare over breakfast and Macbeth is particularly significant as it was that part that more than any other that defined Pete’s career – his bloodcurdling portrayal of Macbeth at Bristol Old Vic and on tour is legendary.

Billy’s career includes psychotic registrar Fredrik Johansson in Holby City and an appearance in Game of Thrones that included a duet around a camp fire with Ed Sheeran.

* To book tickets, see lighthousepoole.co.uk