'A Midsummer Night's Dream' review —this joyful, acrobatic comedy is the party of the summer

Read our review of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring Susannah Fielding and JJ Feild, now in performances at the Bridge Theatre to 23 August.

Returning to the Bridge Theatre following a run in 2019, Nicholas Hytner’s immersive production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s most captivating comedy, is an explosion of acrobatic wonder. A precursor of sorts to Hytner’s dazzling staging of Guys & Dolls, it’s theatre as a gymnasium where anything goes – including a generous dose of gender and sexual fluidity – and there’s no such thing as too much showing off.

The opening scenes, however, point towards a dystopian interpretation. Hippolyta (Susannah Fielding, doubling as Titania), queen of the Amazons, is presented as a literal trophy in a glass case as she awaits her forced marriage to coolly dispassionate Theseus, Duke of Athens (JJ Feild, doubling as Oberon). A choir sing dirge-like hymns; the men wear black suits and the women look like they’ve stepped out of Margaret Atwood’s Gilead. Hippolyta presses against her cage in solidarity with Hermia (Nina Cassells), who is at risk of being the victim of an honour killing, but is powerless to do anything about it.

The production really gets going when we enter the forest and are swept away with the fairies. David Moorst’s wry, quasi-delinquent Puck and his team of mischievous sprites (Bella Aubin, Ali Goldsmith, Kat Collings, Lennin Nelson-McClure, and Jemima Brown) hang, glide and somersault to their hearts’ content (movement direction by Arlene Phillips). The freestyle aerial ballet performed during the interval is not to be missed.

In a twist, it’s Titania who orchestrates the prank with Bottom and, in contrast to the way in which she is customarily humiliated, there’s something sweet and tender about Field’s Oberon’s wooing of Bottom; they dress in an array of luxurious his-and-his silk loungewear and sip champagne in a bubble bath for two.

He ultimately admires Titania for her cunning and doesn’t regret the experience, and their relationship is restored as one of equals. Back in Athens, it’s translated as power that Hippolyta can use over Theseus – any risk of losing his alpha male automaton image makes him markedly more genial towards her thereafter.

Bunny Christie’s set design is quite the adventure playground, in which verdant beds and actual beds rise from the ground and float from the sky. Christina Cunningham’s otherworldly costumes are also a delight, particularly Titania’s outfit, an iridescent green tie-dyed silk and feathers that makes her resemble an exotic bird.

The production loses some momentum in the scenes with the lovers, who are pleasant but largely two-dimensional. But the Rude Mechanicals, led by Felicity Montagu’s Mistress Quince as a long-suffering adult education facilitator, present a truly uproarious staging of Pyramus and Thisbe that’s also touching in its dedication to teamwork, however chaotic. Emmanuel Akwafo is charming as Bottom, dressed in a yellow boilersuit, who is both innocent and deeply serious about his art (“It’s in the round!” he hisses at the Wall).

It’s a play in which the whimsical and the serious intertwine and joy prevails. Topped off with a finale filled with a group dance and giant moon-like beach balls floating over the pit, it’s the best party of the summer.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is at the Bridge Theatre to 23 August. Book A Midsummer Night's Dream tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Photos by Manuel Harlan)