A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream might not be Shakespeare’s best play but it’s probably his most accessible. For audiences, the play has great comedic moments, rich characters and numerous familiar lines; for directors, it offers countless ways to stretch theatrical imagination and interpretation.

Director Gordon Barr certainly has a lot of ideas for this production, which marks the 10th anniversary of Bard in the Botanics. The fact that all of these ideas don’t work to equal effect is not at all surprising; what is surprising is the contrast of the peaks and valleys.

There are sadly some rather negative aspects. Chief among these is the choice to pad the production out with numerous musical and dance numbers. Uncut, Dream usually tends to run just over two hours, and yet this production is closer to three, and it really feels like it at times. Key scenes that should be quick go on for ages, usually due to predictable musical mash-ups and gimmicky staging. And as is the case with many of the company’s previous productions, some of the performances can be a bit hit-and-miss, though luckily there are no big ‘misses’ to be found here.

And yet there are other portions that come close to perfection. Some of the performances might be a bit off-target but the energy is consistently high. There are also some real winning turns, particularly from Robert Elkin’s camp Puck and Stephen Clyde’s fantastic Nick Bottom. While most of the musical numbers might not work, there are two or three that justify the musical concept.

And it has what just might be the funniest scene to hit Scotland’s theatres this year in its phenomenal ending rendition of the Pyramus and Thisbe ‘tragedy’, a performance so well executed that it brought actual tears to my eyes.

For those reasons, this Dream comes recommended.