COMEDIANS SLING OFF OVER SHAKESPEARE

Herald Sun, 24-12-1999, Rachael Hodder.   When you are surrounded by comedians, an injury can be the butt of jokes rather than a liability. That's what A Midsummer Night's Dream cast member Kate Atkinson, who plays Hermia, has found. The actor dislocated her shoulder during a physical rehearsal of the Shakespeare play, being performed outdoors at the Botanic Gardens. "I seem to be the smallest member of the cast who gets thrown around the most," she says, laughing. Atkinson, who played police prosecutor Karen Miller in the ABC TV show SeaChange, has been performing with her arm in a sling and getting cortisone injections to help with tendinitis. "I have been plagued by ill health during rehearsals for this show. It was gastro-enteritis first, then a cold, now this arm and a bruised rib. "It has never happened to me before. It certainly teaches you compromise and to have patience." Two of her co-stars, comedians Greg Fleet and Wil Anderson, have Atkinson's injury in their sights. During the show, now in its preview season, they send her up. The show's director and producer, Glenn Elston, says audiences have reacted well. "When Wil is serenading Kate in the woods, instead of saying, 'Then by your side, no bedroom ne deny for lying, so Hermia I do not lie', he says, 'My love, don't think I would do you any harm, bloody hell you've only got one arm!' "Later when Wil is under the influence of Puck and in love with another character, they are all arguing in the woods and he says, 'Although I hate her I'm not going to break her other arm'." Atkinson says she is unsure when the sling will come off but hopes it is next week. "I want it for no longer than the preview season - then I never want to see it again."