A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon
Tuesday 13th February 2024
Directed by Eleanor Rhodes
Breathing life into a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a daunting task, given the fact that for many, this tale of love and mischief serves as their first encounter with Shakespeare, often introduced during primary school. Consequently, the play’s themes and characters become deeply ingrained in our cultural consciousness from a young age and producing something new and fresh with a text so often performed, can carry with it a weight of expectation. Fortunately, Eleanor Rhodes has achieved all of that and more, with a rendition of this play which manages to retain all of the charm we expect, with a real edge of design and technology.
A Midsummer Nights Dream is a play I know well. The last time it was performed by The RSC in 2016, I was in it, and so it was with a sense of anticipation that I attended this press night performance on a rainy February evening. Right from the off, it was clear that this Dream was going to pull out all the stops, with Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory’s music score electrifying the auditorium. Lucy Osborne’s set contains a ceiling-full of different sized white paper globes, forming a canopy of light and illusion throughout the production, creating a dream-state above and all around us, to supplement the action on the stage below. Fairies as tiny points of light dart around, and holograms blur the lines between illusion and reality.
A series of flickering video projections of test cards, transform the upstage area into a giant box, and it is here that Theseus (Bally Gill) and Hippolyta (Sirine Saba) begin the adventure of love, mischief, illusion and dreams. Gill is a delightfully awkward Theseus, and Saba absolutely acerbic in her reactions to the Duke. Gill and Saba also take on the roles of Oberon and Hippolyta, the punky and feisty King and Queen of the fairies, whose argument has disrupted the whole nature of fairyland. Their performances are wildly good, Saba’s Titania revelling in her passions, and Gill’s Nu-Romantic Oberon, orchestrating and manipulating events throughout, staying close to all of the action as an invisible puppet-master.
The plot of Dream has three strands which interweave, with the main focus on the fate of four lovers. Hermia (Dawn Sievewright) and Lysander (Ryan Hutton) are in love, but Hermia’s father, Egeus, insists she marry Demetrius (Nicholas Armfield.). Hermia’s friend Helena (Boadicea Ricketts) pines for Demetrius, who spurns her affections. Faced with an ultimatum, Hermia and Lysander flee to the woods to escape Athenian law, pursued by Demetrius and Helena. Oberon, the king of the fairies, intervenes by instructing his mischievous sprite, Puck (Premi Tamang), to use a love potion on Demetrius. Mistaken identity leads to chaos as both male lovers’ affections shift to Helena, forcing an epic battle. The lovers are magnificent, from Hutton’s wide-boy, mullet-having Lysander getting the most consistent laughs of the evening, to Ricketts’ absolutely fumin’ Helena, the fight scene up and down ladders is a non-stop riot, and the reconciliation completely believable.
But it is largely the Mechanicals, and in particular the role of Bottom, that is often the biggest draw to this play, and these Mechanicals are cast with laughter and comedy in mind. Matthew Baynton (of Ghosts and Horrible Histories fame) plays Bottom and he is outstanding. The genius in casting Baynton as Bottom isn’t just his appeal in turning the younger generation’s gaze towards Stratford, but in his comedic acting expertise. He embraces Bottom as the main character in his own world but is endearing and lovable. While his constant demands clearly exasperate Quince (the excellent Helen Monks) it’s with eagerness and a sense of wanting to help, rather than bullishness or any kind of showing off. Baynton is a fantastic clown, whether in a pin-striped tailored suit, y-fronts and an open shirt, or a ballet-outfit, he is kind, sweet, baffled and genuine. The audience are rooting for both Bottom and for Baynton in this role, and they both massively deliver. Pyramus and Thisbe is played for enormous laughs, and doesn’t drop for a second, with Emily Cundick’s Wall a particular highlight.
A special mention must go to Premi Tamang, the understudy for Puck who was called to arms on Press Night. She was exceptional, and a real testament not only to her own ability, but to the RSC’s preparedness in ensuring consistency and excellence.
This Dream is full of magic and trickery, presenting an edge of knavishness and creepiness; never twee or pedestrian, but always bewitching.
It is hard to believe that a text written 430 years ago can have so much to say today, but the RSC have delivered something impressive here. Dreams are a consistent theme in Shakespeare, and by leaning into that and presenting the whole production as a retro, 80s communal hallucination, we willingly embrace everything before us. What an absolute delight.
