Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, The Globe

Helen Murray

There is a perennial danger with A Midsummer Night’s Dream that the "Wood near Athens" becomes a mere thicket of pantomime tropes where poetry is lost to the blunders. Yet, in the hands of Emily Lim, making a triumphant directorial debut in the wooden ‘O’, the Globe has found a production that manages to be both profoundly human and deliriously ethereal. 

Lim’s directorial flair is evident from the first entrance. Drawing on her history of community-driven theatre, she treats the Globe’s audience not as passive observers, but as fellow citizens of this transformative night. Where so many productions stumble is in the leap between the rigid court of Athens and the chaotic forest. Lim bridges the gap by suspending our disbelief so entirely that the comic farce becomes a lived reality. For two and a half hours, the logic of the dream is the only logic that matters. 

The clarity of the prose is, quite simply, a revelation. Often, the dense verse of the lovers can feel like a hurdle to be cleared. Here, thanks to an exemplary cast, it is the heartbeat of the show. Sophie Cox (Hermia) and Romaya Weaver (Helena) deliver their barbs with such pin-sharp precision and emotional honesty that the lines feel freshly minted. The quartet which is completed by the brilliantly exasperated Gavi Singh Chera and Mel Lowe, navigates the shifting loyalties with a believability that makes the hysterical comedy feel grounded in genuine, youthful heartbreak.

The "Rude Mechanicals" are equally superb, led by an Adrian Richards whose Bottom is a masterclass in extraversion. Their rehearsals and ultimate performance of Pyramus and Thisbe avoid the trap of easy mockery, instead finding a poignant, bumbling sincerity that is as moving as it is funny. Audrey Brisson, doubling as Hippolyta and Titania, is a luminous presence, her performance anchored by a vocal dexterity that captures both the regal and the raw.

Visually, the production is a feast. Aldo Vázquez’s costume design is exceptional, eschewing the tired clichés for high camp flare with enough restraint that such accents the unfurling comedy perceptively. Think Sex and The City meets AbFab meets Court Jester (all perhaps synonyms) and you’re some of the way there! The aesthetic feels both ancient and startlingly modern, reflecting the play’s vision of a world where the veil between the everyday and the extraordinary is joyfully thin. 

As the London sun sets over the thatch and the "starry, summer skies" mentioned in the text become our literal ceiling, the production reaches its apex. It is a rare thing to witness a Shakespearean comedy where the laughter is so constant, yet the stakes feel so high. I cannot recommend this enough.

***** Five Stars

Reviewed by Jeff Mostyn

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