There is mischief in abundance, but a sparkle that is missing in this abridged version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which gets bogged down by the dialogue.
This abridged version of William Shakespeare’s comedy is a collaboration between the Unicorn Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, combining in an effort to bring the playwright’s work to a younger audience. Despite its truncation (coming in at just under 90 minutes), the piece keeps in focus the original’s chaos of mismatched lovers and mischievous fairies and the play within a play, which brings the play to an amusing close.
Yet despite the fun and delightfully goofy ending, the rest of the piece feels restrained in its dialogue selection. Lengthy passages are bolted through at breakneck speed, denting clarity and coherence, making it at times feel ironically inaccessible in a production aimed at opening Shakespeare up.
Despite this, the production is well-handled by a small yet effective cast, who double between the lovers and the play within a play’s actors to great effect. Scout Worsley (Hermia) is fiery and fierce, battling lovestruck Helena (a melodramatic Boni Adeliyi) with great gusto. Meanwhile, Kaireece Denton’s Lysander and Shahin Rezvani’s Demetrius are good fun once bewitched by Joséphine-Fransilja Brookman’s troublemaking Puck, with Brookman’s skipping and jumping performance matching the character’s sneaky ways. Puck’s boss, the conniving Oberon (Chris Jared) is upright and assured, and is a neat contrast to his charmingly sweet wife Titania (Amelia Donkor).
Yet it is Emmy Stonelake’s portrayal of Bottom and Egeus which threatens to steal the show. Whether wrestling with a loose moustache or flamboyantly dying in the farcical meta-play at the end, Stonelake’s chaotic characterisation is exactly what the rest of the play, at times, lacks. It is vibrancy and energy that breathes great life into the work, and is a stark contrast to the rest of the work, which is a little stifled.
Lily Arnold’s design, mostly chipboard walls and a few swinging tyres, feels a bit too bare, with the tyres, which characters only sometimes swing on, getting in the way. It is not clear what the overall design concept is here, yet what is effective is Will Monks’ caption design, emblazoned onto the set to help the younger audience keep pace with the story and who’s who, though these do fall foul of the awkwardly placed wheels too.
If this is a child’s first foray into the world of Shakespeare, the colourful chaos of Bottom’s play within a play at the end of the piece ignites the last 20 minutes and brings the centuries-old piece to life. This production needs a little more work to balance the rest of the piece out, yet it is a noble effort to bring the layered comedy to life for such a young audience.
