A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Headlong Theatre and the Nuffield Southampton, in association with Hull Truck at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich

for The Public Reviews

The Hollywood “Dream” is not a new idea. Shakespeare's Globe tour a year or two back had Quince and Bottom in the Directors' Chairs. This time, in a brilliantly sustained conceit, it's Robin P Goodfellow, mischievously manipulating the mortals in an affectionate look at the star-studded Sixties in tinsel town.

Athens is a painted backdrop, and also the name of the production company. The mechanicals, shorn of their traditional trades, are the crew, and Oberon and Titania [doubling, as so often, Theseus and Hippolyta] were gods of the silver screen, cheekily channelling the great Burton and Taylor.

Natalie Abrahami's production was crammed with clever touches – the clapper-board cranny, the child-like fairies and the Red Indian Boy, the cable wood, and especially the music – Casta Diva on the Dansette, On the Roof and A Summer Place for Titania's backstage bower. Thanks to some ingenious video, we actually saw the main title, and some revealing rushes and out-takes.

A near faultless cast of ten covered all the characters, though poor old Quince [David Shaw-Parker] had to be the voice of Wall, Moon and Lion in Pyramus and Thisbe, since Starveling [Wardrobe Assistant] and the rest were nowhere to be seen. The result was predictably hilarious, with Michael Dylan's Flute a splendid Thisbe - “How will I live ?” she ad libs, stealing Hippolyta's line from lost blockbuster “Where The Wild Thyme Blows”. Christopher Logan was a memorable Bottom, flouncing and slightly fey, with more than a hint of dark depths below the surface.

The lovers were given wonderful fights and chases, even a balcony scene – Faye Castelow especially fine as a feisty Hermia. Justin Avoth's Oberon was beautifully spoken – elsewhere the approximate accents were sometimes a distraction. Not so for Sandy Grierson's superb Puck. Perched on his chair, with notebook and pipe [lots of smoking in this show], he seemed to be planning his mischief, and his cynical, caustic comments caught the mood exactly.

There was no shortage of magic, mayhem or mirth in this two-hour comedy. Even the fairies, with their cowboy outfits, were strangely effective. But, as the commendably informative programme points out, the play is on the National Curriculum, and the half-term matinée I saw was well attended by students of all ages. And I did wonder if this imaginative interpretation, “more strange than true” perhaps, might be a tad confusing for first-time wanderers in the wood near Athens.

Photos: Keith Pattison