MEMBERS of the Castle Players amateur drama group in Teesdale are to appear in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of plans to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

The group is one of two from the region who will play the roles of the Mechanicals when the Dream is performed at Northern Stage in Newcastle.

They will rehearse at the Witham in Barnard Castle with local director, Jill Cole, while the other group, from the People’s Theatre, will rehearse in Heaton.

Both will then work with the professional RSC actors from January. Performances in Newcastle are scheduled for March.

Said Ms Cole: "We’re absolutely delighted. As a community-based theatre company, our core work is producing large-scale outdoor Shakespeare so for us it is a real honour to have a chance to learn from, and be inspired by, the greatest Shakespearian company of all.

"We don't have a theatre of our own in Barnard Castle, so it will also be very exciting for us to have the chance to work at Northern Stage."

Shakespeare’s much-loved Mechanicals are an under-prepared, loveable bunch of craftsmen who put themselves forward to entertain royalty at the end of the play.

The Players chosen are Peter Cockerill, who will play Bottom, the Weaver, Andrew Stainthorpe (Flute, the Bellows Mender), Harry French (Quince, the Carpenter), Ian Kirkbride (Starveling, the Tailor), Ben Pearson (Snout, the Tinker) and Graham Fewell (Snug, the Joiner).

A Midsummer Night's Dream was the first play the Castle Players staged in a promenade production after the group's formation in 1986.

Gowing in numbers and repute, they now stage outdoor theatre annually, usually Shakespeare, in the grounds of the Bowes Museum and other plays and shows at indoor venues. Their latest production, The Merry Wives of Windsor, opened this week at the Bowes Museum.

The Dream was reprised as the 25th anniversary production in 2013. Directed by Simon Pell, it had several of the above named actors playing Mechanicals, whose antics prompted the following, perhaps prescient, remark in the D&S review: "Farce in the manner of coarse acting, this was as good as anything on the professional stage, with the mechanicals' amusing individual character traits flowing with uproarious hilarity".

In total, 14 amateur theatre groups throughout the country have been chosen to appear in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, which will visit 12 theatres nationwide. Local schoolchildren will take part as Titania’s fairy train.

The amateurs will perform alongside 18 professional actors under a creative team led by RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman.

The production opens in Stratford-upon-Avon in February. After a UK tour, it returns to Stratford in June and each of the 14 amateur companies will reprise their roles on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage.

Erica Whyman said: "The standard has been tremendous and the wonderful diversity of men and women who will be taking on these roles is very exciting and, perhaps most importantly, they have really made us laugh."

She added: “We loved working with the Castle Players and were impressed by how much they each pushed themselves. Peter, in particular, found something very special and courageous in Bottom, and they really captured the importance of the working lives of the characters. They are a lovely ensemble and will make a warm and loveable gang of Mechanicals.”

The BBC will capture the action in The Best Bottoms in the Land (title to be confirmed), which will follow the RSC’s journey as it puts on the production with amateurs and professional actors during the tour. The programme will follow individual stories for broadcast in spring 2016 on BBC One.

Tickets are on sale from the Northern Stage box office on 0191 2305151 or northerstage.co.uk.

It will be the second time the Castle Players have performed with the RSC in Stratford. The last time was in 2012 when the group's production of As You Like It formed part of the Open Stages Festival.