A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Pumphouse Theatre, 21 January 2024: Review. Shakespeare in the Park 2024

24th January 2024

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play of enchantment which reveals the madness and possessiveness of love, redeemed with a happy ending.

The Shoreside Theatre’s production of Midsummer Night this year, comes after pestilence and floods have wrought their havoc in the preceding years.

The global imposition of enforced separation and the closure of the performing arts was a demonstration of insanity itself. That the masks and veils can be lifted so easily as this famous Shakespeare play achieves, we so wish on those other matters.

There is a young and enthusiastic cast, and they perform with a sense of lightness and liberation, under the lead of director Grae Burton.

We start the play with All I Have to do is Dream, a classic Boudleaux Bryant song as performed by the Everly Brothers. It sets the tone of reverie, but it also has dark shadows.

I need you so that I could die/ Whenever I want you/ All I have to do is dream.

The story is set in ancient Greece and Duke Theseus of Athens (Toby Furmanski) is about to wed the Amazon Queen Hippolyta (Katie Hemus). They also play the monarchs of the fairy world, Oberon and Titania respectively.

The powers of royalty are mirrored in the powers of the supernatural or God realm.

The first dark shadow is cast early. Enter a beautiful young maiden of the court, Hermia (Sophia Kirkwood-Smith). She is brought before the duke by her father, in a rage.

He wants her to marry his favoured suitor Demetrius (Daniel Rundle), and not the one she has fallen in love with, Lysander (Dylan Spiers).

He invokes an ancient law. Either obey your father of lose your life. I think there is a gasp from the audience, and the duke is also taken aback.

She has four days to decide. Either obey angry Dad or seek refuge as a cloistered nun.

It may seem that we live in more enlightened times. But arranged marriage traditions are ancient and are still practiced today in certain cultures and royalty. They may have a higher success rate than love partnerships.

Hermia confides in her best friend Helena (Sofia Shaw). But Helena’s former love was Demetrius, and she feels deeply conflicted. She wants him back and the machinations of treachery are set afoot.

Shakespeare may be referring to the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and the seven components of the soul. One of which is the Ba, equating to the heart. That also connects it to sex and treachery. A recurring theme in most of his plays.

Midsummer also stages a play within a play. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe, from the writings of Ovid in Metamorphoses. A story of lovers forbidden by their respective families. They are the only two characters who die in this play.

A group of workers are staging this play to honour the duke on his royal wedding. The most interesting character amongst them is Bottom (Aiden Allen) who brings a George Bernard Shaw working-class accent to the role. He imparts the most wisdom in his honest appetites and emotions.

All the workers do. There is Flute (Ben Martin) who doesn’t want to dress as a woman and play Thisbe. He protests, but eventually does a hilarious channelling of Dylan Mulvaney in his portrayal.

Shakespeare would be bemused today. In his time all the players were men and acted the female roles as well. He toyed with gender fluidity. A male actor represents a female. Who then disguises herself as a man as subterfuge (The Merchant of Venice).

I don’t think he would be so confused to be unable to define what a woman is. I suspect he would skewer those pretensions in a Ricky Gervais manner.

The third realm in Midsummer is the world of enchantment and fairies. Oberon the King is overbearing and must impose his will on his consort Titania. He wants a young man that has been gifted to her for himself. That sounds sinister in these times.

That he uses a love potion to cast a spell is even more so. When we find out he wants Titania to fall in love with a beast or an animal, then we are into some strange eroticism.

This is love as a form of madness and control.

Oberon sets his sprite Puck (Gus Woodgate) as the Fool and mischief maker. Fools are never stupid in Shakespearean plays.

The enchanted woods are where all protagonists meet.

The lovers become manic and possessed. The young players throw themselves into this with convincing physical bravado amongst the men and increasing hysteria amongst the women.

At one point they all enter a standing sleep state which looks spooky and feral. As if we are in the woods of The Blair Witch Project.

The workers have been rehearsing their play in the woods.

Bottom is transformed with a donkey’s head by Puck, and that is who Titania falls for. He is a most comical ass.

It is a simple stage. The outdoor setting of a park and trees creates a bigger physical space for us. It does feel like we are inside a dream too. A familiar one where an idyllic settings become ominous.

Fairy costumes, masks, royal court attire, do stand out in this production. The transition from light to dark is great natural theatre.

With the quarrelling lovers finding resolution, they join the royal couple in watching the play. Becoming intoxicated on sprits of a different nature.

The tragic elements of the Pyramus and Thisbe story become a farce. The lovers have forgotten their own madness, and believe it was all a strange dream.

It is a delightful production and moves along at pace. There were several younger people in the audience, and this would be a good way to experience and connect to a Shakespearean play. The setting helps immensely.

Rev. Orange Peel