If all of Shakespeare’s plays offer scope for reinvention, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times, his “wonky comedy” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” seems positively to cry out to directors: “Do something new to me!” As ever, summer is bringing a host of new “Dreams” across the country, and kicking off proceedings are two big productions – in Birmingham and at Shakespeare’s Globe in London – that foreground fun and silliness.
The former, from the Birmingham Rep’s new artistic director Joe Murphy and his deputy Madeleine Kludje, is a “larky”, panto-like “spectacle that feasts on popular culture, drag, local accents, crowd-play and newly added quips. It sets out to be fun, and it really is”.
Designed with Birmingham’s young, multicultural population in mind, this “lively, progressive” take on the “well-worn classic” has the feel of a “club night”, said Alison Brinkworth on WhatsOnStage. It features a highly camp Puck (Adam Carver, aka cabaret artiste Fatt Butcher), neon-pink lighting, gender reversals, queer romances, and pop hits including Queen’s “A Kind of Magic”. But although it opens with Hippolyta preaching about climate change, it is very “faithful to the Bard’s script and language”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
At the Globe, Emily Lim has produced a “crowd-pleasing” staging with a similar “kick-off-your-shoes-and-join-the-party kind of vibe”, said Theo Bosanquet on the same website. In one of several “ingenious little twists”, Puck accidentally squirts love potion into his own eye, and falls for an unsuspecting member of the audience.
Michael Grady-Hall is an “inspired” Puck, said Miriam Gillinson in The Guardian. “More court jester than fairy, he spends much of the show joking with the crowd, ad-libbing with exquisite timing and pelting everyone with bubbles.”
With “effervescent comic performances”, gloriously extravagant costumes, a charming set and hearty folk music by Jim Fortune, “this is the rarest of things: a ‘Dream’ the whole family can enjoy. Just cover the kids’ eyes for the slightly naughtier bits.”
Birmingham Rep to 24 May, Shakespeare’s Globe, London to 29 August