A Midsummer Night's Dream

Synopsis

On a midsummer's night Hermia and her lover Lysander flee from Athens and Demetrius - the man Hermia's father favours as a son-in-law. Demetrius follows, pursued by Helena who loves him in spite of being spurned in favour of Hermia. On the same night Bottom and his friends leave Athens to find somewhere quiet to rehearse their play which is to be performed at the wedding feast of Duke Theseus. Drawn into the woods they enter a world of magic, mystery and wonder.

Our Review:

8 February 2006

NOTE: The following review dates from April 2005 and this production's original run in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Three years ago the RSC hit, as it were, rock Bottom with a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was as big a critical flop as the previous one, three years before, had been a hit.

There was never any likelihood that associate director Gregory Doran, who directs this, the opening play in the company’s new Comedies season, would make an ass of himself with this perennial favourite. Nevertheless, although the RSC may now be financially in the black, it’s not yet there critically. Success in the Swan has not translated into a consistent body of work in the RST. Indeed the RSC’s recent successes have chiefly been with the work of writers other than Shakespeare.

Doran goes some way to restoring solvency with this enjoyable, visually spectacular production, the high point of which is undoubtedly the staging, by Bottom and his fellow mechan...

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Latest User Review

217.207.157.89) - 6 February 2006:

Amanda Harris as Titania is incoherent. Like others, I found the Mechanicals' cod-Brummie accents irritating. But - everything else about the production thrilled me. Go see it - if only to see the very funny inter-play between Puck and Oberon. ...

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