A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare's Globe

A new Globe season. The start of the summer. (Only a little rain). And a new artistic director – with A Midsummer Night’s Dream the first production under Emma Rice’s leadership, and also the first production directed by her at the Globe.

She’s come from Kneehigh, and there were some familiar Kneehigh faces in this – particularly Puck (Katy Owen), who was very funny as the young servant Robert in Kneehigh’s wonderful Rebecca last year. She’s equally funny as Puck in this – mischievous, naughty, dangerous and fun, playing gleefully with both the actors and the audience. And Bottom (Ewan Wardrop) was another familiar face from Kneehigh who became an instant Globe favourite.

There were also echoes of Kneehigh’s style in the music, dancing, aerial work, and general air of irreverence in this A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Special mention to the Changeling puppet, which was quite beautiful too.

I can see what this production is intended to be – a riot of fun and colour and wildness. I’m thinking something like a Baz Luhrmann film live, on stage, in the Globe space. But it needed to be pacier to really achieve that wildness. I dare say the pace will pick up as the run goes on.

What worked particularly well were the scenes with the lovers. I really like the male Helena – ‘Helenus’ – the gender switch brought something new to the dynamic. And all four lovers had great chemistry and comic timing. They were recognisably of our world and our time (the Hoxton hipster references went down well, and I enjoyed the Beyoncé dance).

In fact, all the dancing was fabulous – from the fairies’ slightly terrifying moves right through to the joyous Bollywood-inspired jig at the end.

But am I allowed one quibble, as someone who goes to the Globe a fair bit? I know I probably sound like a bore, but I found the amplification of the actors’ speaking voices quite disconcerting. I didn’t mind it for the music, but for the dialogue it seemed unnecessary and took away from the intimacy of the Globe space. When you’re standing in the yard, sometimes actors talk directly to you - or sometimes someone tall is standing in front of you and you can’t see who’s talking, so you rely on your ears to tell you where to crane to look. When their voices are coming from somewhere other than their bodies, neither of those things work.

In a production that was otherwise really proudly physical – with some imaginative and brilliant movement – it seemed strange that the voice was treated as separate from that physicality. The voice is part of the body too.

But hey, that’s a minor quibble. It’s exciting to see new things at the Globe. New ideas, new approaches, new faces. And I really enjoyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which I saw at the matinée on 21^st May 2016). It was naughty, irreverent, imaginative and fun, and – most importantly for a comedy – it was funny.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the season!

A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Pantaloons

I’ve seen quite a lot of versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so it’s not always a play that fills me with much excitement. But you can rely on The Pantaloons to provide something fresh – and this production (which I saw at Michelham Priory on 25^th August 2013) was fun.

A recurring ukulele motif ran throughout: Bottom’s donkey head was rather ingeniously made from ukuleles; another ukulele doubled as the enchanted flower; and music played on ukuleles, banjos and guitars was used to signify the weaving of magic.

The Pantaloons’ trademark brightly coloured costumes were also used to provide a marker between the carefree atmosphere of the forest and the drab, everyday world of Theseus in his buttoned-up coat. I worried that the audience at Michelham Priory might be too firmly stuck in the buttoned-up world to be transported to the magical, colourful world of The Pantaloons – but after some cajoling, they did warm up a bit.

With the whole audience playing the forest (and one man a screech owl), and various unsuspecting audience members cast as fairies and even as Hippolyta, The Pantaloons made the audience part of the show. Even the most reserved audience couldn’t help being swept along by the sense of mischief and fun.

By the time we reached the rude mechanicals’ play at the end (the funniest Pyramus and Thisbe I can remember seeing), the audience were in stitches – kids and grown-ups alike. Bottom’s (Neil Jennings) reaction to ‘Hippolyta’s’ audience-member boyfriend ending up on stage was very funny, the death by umbrella was perfect silliness, and the whole cast seemed as though they were having great fun, particularly in their interactions with the audience.

Another set piece that worked really well, I thought, was the scene of the lovers’ confrontation in the forest. With the two men now in love with Helena (Kelly Griffiths), and the two women at each other’s throats, the whole scene was accompanied by Puck (Christopher Smart) on guitar. It played out almost like a dance to the music – one of those barn dance style, partner-swapping dances.

As I’ve discussed in relation to other Shakespeare productions I’ve seen (namely a Georgian language production of As You Like It), the music and physicality of performance take the pressure off the audience when it comes to understanding the language. And this is something that The Pantaloons, at their best, can make look effortless.

The Pantaloons don’t just do Shakespeare for people who have studied it. They work hard to make it understandable to a modern audience. And the music, physical comedy and ad libs work alongside the verse-speaking to achieve that.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is only on tour for a few days more, so take a look at The Pantaloons’ website to see venue details and book tickets: www.thepantaloons.co.uk

You can also read my review of their production of Sherlock Holmes here.