A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of Shakespeare’s most
popular plays. I don’t think there’s barely a day that goes by without another
production opening somewhere in the world. Yet despite its popularity, there is
a robustness to it that withstands this very proliferation – no matter how many
cuts or omissions are made to it, the inherent magic of it still stands, still
transports audiences to the “palace wood a mile without the town” where the
Rude Mechanicals, the four lovers, and a host of wayward fairies converge upon
a midsummer’s night.
Presented here by
Bell Shakespeare for a schools audience, it is characterised by cocooning warmth
and a very earthy, tactile aesthetic. From the curved wooden wall of Teresa Negroponte’s
set,
almost like a ruined ship’s hull turned on its side, to the costumes and the
actors’ physicality, the robustness of Shakespeare’s script bounces back at
you, even if it is somewhat truncated and reshaped.
