Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Raz Shaw

Reviewer: Joshua Ray

The Public Reviews Rating:

Shakespeare’s most fun play… the Globe company on tour… the Bodleian quadrangle on a July evening… interval drinks in the Divinity School… what’s not to like?

Lord knows I tried to find something. I really did. Reviewers shouldn’t be supine, shouldn’t be carried away by a heady combo of vigorous and classy performances, fabulous setting and indestructibly joyful text. I failed this test to such an extent that I’m going to ask you to stop reading, go to your computer or telephone and book some tickets. Now, before they sell out.

Done that? Good work.

Well, the play, to start with, as you will know, has a plot that is completely bonkers. But with Shakespeare at the wheel, all the fallings-in-and-out-of-love, the discord among the fairies, the chance encounters and betrayals, make perfect sense. Just go with it. And it is of course the frame for some of the loveliest language ever spoken in this island. Shakespeare had no CGI: he used words instead, and properly spoken they carry you along like a roller-coaster.

The production recognises this and works with it. The design (Hannah Clark) and costumes (supervised by Liz Evans) are simple and spare, without being harshly minimalist. It has some good wheezes (the best of them being to dress Puck as Liza Minnelli in Cabaret), but its greatest virtue, a great virtue indeed, is to keep out of the way of the acting.

Simple and natural conventions of dress, aprons for the Mechanicals, tailcoats for the Fairies, let the audience keep all the characters (on average 2.6 per cast member) straight. The Twenties flavour gives the right atmosphere of fun and decadence. All this is enhanced by the discreet stage presence of Stage Manager Danni Bastian, visible but unseen, handing the actors their change of costume, hinting at sound effects, and adding another layer of magic and mystery.

Against this background the actors take hold of Shakespeare’s text and run, skip, vault and gallop with it. Some of them were put a little on the back foot by the open acoustic of the Bodleian Quad – Bethan Walker, for example, was vivid as Puck and fully engaged with the audience (if you don’t like being kissed and dragged on stage, stay away from the front row) but at times it was hard to catch all the words. Every performance, though, combined a sense of fun with fidelity to the spirit of the bard – a hallmark of Globe productions.

William Mannering, a long time Globe man, as Bottom had some of the best material, and made the very best of it: kinetic but precise. Simon Merrells, as Theseus and Oberon, had to carry a lot of the plot, which he did without losing pace. Done right, this is the part around which the play rotates, and Merrells didn’t falter.

Above all, though, this production is an ensemble piece. Lovestruck Lysander (Mark Quartley) and Demetrius (Leon Williams) mimicking their idol Helena (Louise Ford) as she speaks; the to-and-fro within the impromptu choruses of Mechanicals and minor fairies; the dance routines integrated with costume changes: the best performance of all was the cast as a whole. It’s hard to think Shakespeare wouldn’t have loved it; the audience, who stood to applaud, certainly did. You won’t regret those tickets you bought.

Runs until 8th August

A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Globe @ Bodleian Quad, Oxford, 4.9 out of 5 based on 11 ratings

Tags: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bethan Walker, Leon Williams, Louise Ford, Mark Quartley, Oxford, Raz Shaw, Simon Merrells, The Globe, Tour, William Mannering, William Shakespeare