A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Munya Chawawa at Chichester Festival Theatre – review

Nineties rave culture comes to Chichester in this exuberant new production by co-directors Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss. Some clever adaptation work replaces Shakespeare’s whimsical tale of fairies and mysterious forests with an illegal outdoor rave in the middle of the west Sussex countryside – Kingley Vale to be precise – just up the A27.

Local place names are liberally interwoven into the familiar text, travelling from Chichester and across the South Downs via Bosham with a quick stop at “the beached sea at Wittering”. It’s the cause of much happy tittering amongst the local crowd.

There is much more to this brilliantly constructed reinvention of the play, however. Audibert and Joss have dug deep to reinvigorate the comedy to make this a genuinely funny production, complete with a plethora of ’90s tunes and ravers, whilst not forgetting the lasers. It’s a pulsating and febrile night that energises and fills the senses.

Theseus (Tom Kanji) is a local Conservative MP whilst his Hippolyta (Celeste Dodwell) is his trussed up and sexually frustrated PA and lover. Sat in their office beneath a framed picture of Magaret Thatcher (which doesn’t take long to be defaced, of course) we watch as John Major announces his new Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, clamping down on illegal raves and unruly activity. It sets the boundaries and clearly defines the establishment versus the generation of freewheeling revellers to follow.

The young lovers are a handsome foursome with energetic physicality. Angela Sant’Albano’s Hermia is indeed both small and fierce, whilst her gender-swapped Lysanda is given spirited life by Ellie Larkin. Kieran Taylor-Ford’s chiselled Demetrius gives a camp smoulder that bounces perfectly off Freya Parks’ nervously awkward Helena. A deliciously chaotic chase scene is a great moment as they fight for and run from the confusing love that they have all fallen under the spell of.

Eve Ponsonby’s Titania is a hardcore raver with a troupe of neon covered dancers in strappy cargo pants as her fairies. Her Michael Hutchence lookalike Oberon gets the rock star treatment from David Sturzaker. He watches the action from his DJ decks above Joanna Scotcher’s impressively expansive set, more Glastonbury Pyramid stage than secret rave hideout. Shane David-Joseph’s Puck is a cheeky delight, breaking the fourth wall quite happily to interact with an audience member and always relishing in the chaos that he’s causing.

The Mechanicals are reinvented as members of the West Sussex Conservative Association. Audibert and Joss lean into the absurd with their collection of misfits and outsiders. Munya Chawawa is a pig-headed Brummie Bottom. He brings his comedy skills to the fore with a muscular performance that is irresistible even at his most obnoxious. What’s not to like about a Bottom that manages to work an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation into his performance?!

Clever use of projection from Ian William Galloway – on panelled sails above the stage and over Scotcher’s pyramid set – compliment Elliot Griggs’ bold lighting design, whilst a ’90s soundtrack gives some great opportunities for energetic dance routines by Jade Hackett.

If I was being pedantic, this is perhaps more middle-class festival vibe than illegal rave and I would absolutely advocate cranking up the volume to really get the party started. But that is just picking holes in what is a fresh and vibrant Dream with genuine wit and warmth from its high-octane start to its absurd finish.

It’s fast and furious and is a dazzling finale to this year’s main house season. It’s also the perfect vehicle for a younger audience to engage with Shakespeare, so I hope those school parties will come flocking to Chichester over the coming weeks to experience it for themselves.