A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (The Lord Chamberlain’s Men)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txHaPB6S6AU

Available until: Don’t ask me. No-one tells me anything.

Watching a Lord Chamberlain’s Men production like stepping back in time, without having to suffer all the inconveniences that would go with it like a complete lack of internet access and anti-ageing facials and the small matter of my marriage being illegal. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an absolutely gorgeous production and I’m not just saying that because all the actors are men.

Morgan Brind’s set is stunning. It is an outdoor production, literally in the woods, and the stage is made into part of the woods – it’s a nest of intertwined trees with hanging creepers that can be brushed aside, allowing characters to enter and exit and spy on each other. You can always rely on Oberon and Puck for a bit of that. They didn’t have TV in Shakespeare’s time so the lovers are like the fairies’ soap fix (only with better acting). Splinter Scenery constructed the set. You wouldn’t normally want to put ‘splinter’ and ‘Bottom’ into the same sentence, but on this occasion, the result is far from painful.

The costumes, also designed by Morgan Brind, look very authentic and I think Oberon and Puck must be able to do real magic because they’re all able to change their costumes so quickly. Alex Beetschen is the musical director and working with such talented performers must have been an absolute Dream. The cast have fabulous voices, they capture the style perfectly and sing the harmonies beautifully.

Director Peter Stickney strongly brings out the farcical elements of the play and the result is hilarious confusion for the characters but not the audience.

I only have one thing to complain about (which is an amazingly small number of complaints for me) and that actually turned out okay. When I read the cast list, I couldn’t see Snug. What, no lion? I wasn’t going to take that lion down. Snug has always been one of my mane pleasures in this play. But as it happened, my roar of disapproval was all for nothing because the lion was still there. They’d just done a bit of tinkering so Snout played the role. There were only four Mechanicals in this version of the play – Bottom the weaver, Flute the bellows mender, Snout the tinker and Quince the… bossy guy? – but that’s actually all that’s needed. Which really gives you paws.

James Camp is a hilarious Bottom, striking every bum note Shakespeare writes for him and being an ass in the best possible way. James also plays Demetrius. I’ve never seen those roles doubled before, but I suppose they could be seen as the arrogant lover and the arrogant Mechanical, though I personally like Bottom. James really went for it with the threats and insults as Demetrius, but he sounded more like a blustering fool than a violent, dangerous man. One advantage of the women being played by men is that Demetrius’ threats towards Helena don’t seem so bad when she looks more of a physical match for him.

Helena is actually the scary one. George Readshaw makes her into a full-on, scary, obsessive stalker, but in a hormonal teenage way, which is funny, rather than a mental health way, which wouldn’t be. I would run away from her too and I would never lower myself (no offence, Hermia) to run as a general rule. George also plays Flute, who won’t pipe down about playing a woman in the Mechanicals’ play but is instrumental to the play’s success. His objections seem ironic given that the actor also plays Helena

 

. Flute is horrified by the thought of femininity while Helena embraces hers with the same fervour with which she’d embrace Demetrius given half a chance.

Hermia and Snout aren’t roles you’d put together either, but they are both described as having claws (I’m not sure who has the subordinate claws), with Hermia declared to be a cat and Snout dressing as the lion. Joshua Glenister can take pride in his performance as Snout, who has so much more to do than most Snouts and consequently seems a more interesting and developed character. As Hermia, the original pocket rocket, he is fiery and explosive.

Alex Wilson plays Lysander and Peter Quince, two very different characters but they’re both the ones who make the plans. Quince has the play mapped out in his head; Lysander knows exactly where he and Hermia are supposed to be going, even if he doesn’t know the way. Quince is named after a fruit, Lysander is the apple of Hermia’s eye… a very interesting pear, deliciously performed. Alex’s Lysander is an ardent romantic; Quince is businesslike and determined not to let Bottom put the wind up him.

The rest of the cast are also excellent, with James Keningale a mischievous Puck and a humorless Egeus and Philostrate. Will de Renzy-Martin is an elegant Hippolyta and a predatory Titania. Maximilian Martin’s Theseus made me aware for the first time that this character’s decisions are mainly based on what will make his life the least difficult while Oberon, by contrast, enjoys stirring things up. (Though I do have to ask what Oberon thinks he’s doing. I can never be sure exactly what I’ll do the next time my husband gets on my nerves, but I can guarantee I won’t be arranging for him to go off and sleep with someone else.) The other members of the cast play Titania’s servant fairies. I was going to say they totally cut the Mustardseed, but I thought that might be confusing. They actually only cut the Snug and the Starveling.