Midsummer Night's Dream (RSC)

Note: Our two regular RSC reviewers - one based in Stratford, one in London - present two very different verdicts on this production. Our overall review rating is an aggregate of their two opposing views.

From London: Review Rating = 1

Richard Jones'controversial and highly stylised production caused a stir at Stratford last year and is probably going to shake up a few traditionalists this time. What strikes me most about the production, however, is not its radicalism, but it's lack of adventure. There have been two stunning RSC productions of Dream in the last decade; productions that truly explored the darkness and the deep sexual urges at the heart of this play. Jones' production does neither.

Most productions of this play these days have Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania played by the same actors. This device blurs the line between fantasy and reality and draws direct links between the autocracy of Oberon and Theseus. Jones' production employs different actors and relies on some bizarre effects to portray the darkness at the heart of the play, but a dancing tree and multitude of giant flies add nothing of substance (apart from providing a few sniggers).

One of the most glaring problems with this production is the inadequacy of the performers: the two sets of lovers struggle with the verse (particularly Michael Colgan's Lysander and Paul Chequer's Demetrius). During the course of the night, most of their clothes are shed, rather in the manner of those peculiarly British farces, where someone loses his trousers, and there's much misunderstanding before it ends happily. But, for all its semi-nudity, this production is unerotic and unfunny in equal measures.

That said, none of the quartet is as bad as Tim McMullan's Oberon, who looks and sounds like some ageing 1960s rock star, after one bad trip too many: he adopts such a peculiar tone that it's hard to concentrate on his words. Presumably, this voice is Jones' idea but it illustrates how little attention the director has paid to the poetry of the text. One exception to the indifferent acting is Dominic Cooper's Puck. Clearly-spoken, athletic and charismatic, Cooper rises above the morass.

The portrayal of the 'rude mechanicals' is a microcosm of what is wrong with this production. Pyramus and Thisbe should be a comic highpoint but, here, they're presented as low-key. It seems that Jones regards this as an opportunity to show off the extravagant costumes so that it's more fashion show than theatrical performance.

This is a production where style definitely has the beating of substance. I found it confusing, muddled (in the most part, poorly acted) and, dare I say it, dull. I was particularly disappointed because I've enjoyed Jones' work before andn given the RSC's history with this comedy, I was expecting fireworks this time.

It should be said, though, that the cast was met with a resounding cheer; I suspect that this is the play working its magic.

- Maxwell Cooter (reviewed at London's Barbican Centre)

Note: The following review dates from February 2002 and the production's original Stratford run.

From Stratford: Review Rating = 4

Sentimental traditionalists will hate this wonderful, radical production. Director Richard Jones brings to the theatre a technique familiar in the world of opera (the setting represents not the physical surroundings of the actors, but their mental landscape). Designer Giles Cadle's stunning set is black and white (predominantly black) in this production, which explores the dark side of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

While the mortals (when they wear anything) wear white, everyone else is dressed in black for these are the spirits of the night. Tim McMullan's terrific Oberon, though never Satanic, is decidedly malevolent. Yolanda Vazquez plays Titania as a Gothic horror dominatrix with a taste for bestiality - as Bottom, resplendent in ass's head, soon discovers. Her fairy attendants are more sub-human than supernatural. As the action unfolds, more and more gigantic flies settle on the stage. We soon realise that dreams can also be nightmares.

This is a play about the night before a wedding and its attendant sexual frenzy. The two pairs of lovers who wander into the woods soon lose their clothes and their illusions. A group of rustic actors - seemingly from the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer school of drama - present a play for the wedding entertainment and, after their night in the wood, swap white rehearsal clothes for black performance costumes. Finally, the spirits of the dark watch over the lovers' wedding beds.

Jones' spellbinding production has one serious flaw. Conceptual sets, which are now common in Monteverdi and Handel but not in Shakespeare, focus attention on the words and music in a way no naturalistic setting does and some of the younger actors don't have the vocal resources to cope with this. Nikki Amuka-Bird, Paul Chequer, Michael Colgan and Gabrielle Jourdan who play the lovers are fine young actors, perfectly capable of turning Shakespeare's dialogue into the natural rhythms of everyday speech and so easily engage with the audience. But I suspect the director has asked them instead to "make the poetry sing" and that is beyond them. They fall between the two stools; much of their verse-speaking is neither natural speech nor poetic magic.

But there is one glorious exception. Dominic Cooper as Puck is magnificent. His verse is wonderful, his rapport with the audience superlative; he truly embodies the spirit of this play. Remember the name for, if his talent is properly managed, he has a glittering future ahead of him. If all the acting had been of this quality, Jones' ambitious concept for this fascinating production would have been triumphantly realised.

- Robert Hole

A Midsummer Night's Dream opened at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 20 February 2002 (previews from 4 February) and continues there in repertory until 23 March 2002. It then tours, from 26 March to 25 May 2002, to Bradford, Stoke on Trent, Norwich, Barbican London, Salford Quays and Plymouth.