A Midsummer Night's Dream

A rumble of thunder announces the beginning of Dundee Rep's take on Shakespeare's magical romantic comedy, serving as a warning to those expecting fairytale glamour and gentle mischief.

Dominic Hill's dark, dirty, adult production plunges the four young lovers into a proper wood ' uncomfortable, and often scary, with no shelter from the elements. The fairies are more like the Lost Boys than Tinkerbell, and Puck (Kevin Lennon) scuttles around like a spider.

Things aren't all doom and gloom, of course ' this Dream is very funny, too.

Robert Paterson excels as Bottom, the jumped-up am-dram actor who wants to play every role and ends up starring alongside fairy queen Titania in a riotous love scene. Fluffy donkey's ears aren't the only large appendages he grows when Puck bewitches him, prompting ripples of scandalised tittering from certain sections of the audience.

In the play's other two plum roles, the ever-reliable Emily Winter (Helena) and promising graduate Kim Gerard (Hermia) come marvellously to blows in a brilliantly-staged cat-fight, having already lost various outer-garments and most of their dignity scrambling around in the dirt.

While the frequent reminders of the outdoor setting are an inspired touch, the rain proves a little distracting in early scenes, and a snow shower doesn't quite correspond with the play's title.

Also, it's not clear why Hippolyta is quite so non-plussed at her impending wedding in the opening scene - presumably we are to assume that in this instance she, like Hermia, has not been permitted to follow her heart. But then, as Shakespeare's playful farce so impishly demonstrates, the hearts of mere mortals can be more than a little fickle, and the course of true love never did run smooth.