Gradually climbing mercury, tender green leaves and a warm caressing breeze - April's pleasant attributes create a romantic spring vibe in the city.

To add, Shanghai Grand Theatre is pushing the romance to a new high with a Shakespeare adaptation, and doubling the modifications by staging his summertime rom-com this weekend.

On April 22 and 23, Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet Company will present a ballet version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with music based on Felix Mendelssohn's compositions.

Choreographed by French artist Michel Kelemenis, the show takes an abstract perspective to retell Shakespeare's story, which originally takes a large cast to tell its complicated and funny plot of humans and fairies being tricked and falling in love under the illusion of a magical juice.

Same theme with vague identities

Kelemenis breaks down the individual identities but retains the romantic theme. Instead, two dancers will take the lead, each taking two roles: Vladimir Ippolitov plays Puck and Oberon, and Yumi Aizawa acts A Fairy and Titania.

Meanwhile, 20 other dancers from the company will portray favorite characters such as Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena.

The work debuted in 2013 at Grand Théâtre de Genève, and since then has been on worldwide tour. Aizawa, who joined the tour to South Africa and Taiwan, told the Global Times that it is unique, but may be hard for some.

"If you try to understand who I am and who we are or the character, if you try to see the story in the piece, I think it's very difficult," Aizawa said.

"But if you just let it happen, just see the show and see the movement, the groups, the relations, I think you'll just enjoy and have fun."

A review by South African art website Cue also noted the difficulty trying to follow the plot, but writes that "the strengths of this production are its sumptuous sets, its talented dancers and the live performance of Mendelssohn's well-known score."

Kelemenis combines neoclassical and contemporary dance in the show, and says the play is a "narration that supports the dancers beyond movement and gesture; in this way, their dance is not merely 'pretty' - to put it simply - but involves a discursive dimension that is built into gesture and moves parallel to the discursive dimension of the music."

(From top) Scenes from Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet Company's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream Photos: Courtesy of Shanghai Grand Theatre

Expanding Mendelssohn's score

The show is 80 minutes long, while the original compositions by Mendelssohn run about 30 minutes, so Kelemenis worked with music director Robert Reimer to rearrange and adapt them for the performance.

The two vocal numbers of Mendelssohn's - the Lullaby chorus and the Finale - are removed, and the work opens with the four movements of his Octet for Strings in E Major, followed by a short excerpt of his Songs Without Words.

The ballet is divided into two halves, which differ in both music and stage set. The first half is more like a fairy tale, with supernatural beings, fairies and elves and dreamlike score, while the second half's music is more grand and revolves around the real world.

Meanwhile, the show also offers surprises by letting male dancers deliver female roles, in the same way that Shakespeare's plays were staged at the very beginning.

Date: April 22 and 23, 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theatre

上海大剧院

Address: 300 People's Avenue

人民大道300号

Tickets: 80 yuan to 880 yuan

Call 400-106-8686 for details