Jack Studio Theatre – until 2 September 2023
4****
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Bear in the Air Productions UK tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is nearing its end – but if you can get tickets to the remaining outdoor dates, grab them fast.
Shakespeare’s tale of forced political marriage, unrequited love and magical interference causing chaos is a glorious giggle in this fast-paced production. As well as the usual doubling of the actors playing Theseus and Oberon and Hippolyta and Titania, a cast of 6 means that every actor plays multiple roles. This never becomes confusing as the quick changes of charmingly homespun costumes make it clear which character is on stage. Another nice touch is the colour coding of Demetrius with Helena, and Lysander with Hermia, as the two Athenian men are sometimes indistinguishable on paper, although Nicholas Southcott and Jack Jacobs make each role their own with some deftly comic touches.
Director and composer Conor Cook marks the beginning and end of each half of the show with a song from the travelling players, joking with instructions to the audience about when it’s time to watch and when it’s time to go to the bar. The quieter scenes between Theseus and Hippolyta/Oberon and Titania that explain the tensions and drive the plot don’t slow the pace of the play, and allow Yvette Bruin and Elizabeth Prideaux to shine with subtler, less broad performances. (Although Bruin’s Theseus is a very English, dangerously jolly despotic caricature of familiar politicians.) As the quartet of young lovers, Nicholas Southcott (Demetrius), Elizabeth Prideaux (Helena), Sadie Pepperrell (Hermia) and Jack Jacobs (Lysander) bring a frenetic teenage energy to the arguments and wooing in fantastically physical portrayals, but never allow the beautiful language to be lost. Sally Sharp’s Puck is a delight – impish and flighty, and always marvelling at the mischief she is making.
This is one of those very rare productions where the mechanicals are actually the funniest part of the play. Fantastic accents, brilliant physical comedy and excellent ensemble work make the struggle to perform their terrible play at the wedding celebrations a joy to watch. Jack Jacobs’ well-meaning but ineffectual Peter Quince is a bundle of twitches and sighs as everything goes wrong around him and he lives through the ongoing health and safety nightmare. Sadie Pepperrell’s Starveling is a hilariously terrified Starveling, wide-eyed and silently mouthing words, leaving the audience rooting for Starveling in their big moment in the spotlight (moonlight?), Elizabeth Prideaux’s drunken Snout and Sally Sharp’s sweet Snug are a joy, and Yvette Bruin’s Flute is a masterclass in “terrible” acting. Nicholas Southcott as Bottom is full of fantastic comic detail but this was a true ensemble and it was refreshing to see that Southcott’s performance, although hilarious, never overshadowed the ongoing shenanigans created by the mechanicals en masse.
An evening of love and laughter, fun and frolics, this delightful production is simply a dream.
Remaining Tour Dates:
7 – 8 September RNLI College, Poole
10 September Henley Cricket Club, Henley-On-Thames