A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by
William Shakespeare
At the Kingston Rose
In many ways this
could so easily have been a disaster. Peter Hall, once again calling in the
favours to keep The Rose alive – my understanding is the financial position
Kingston Rose theatre remains desperate – persuades Judi Dench to reprise her
role as Titania, which she last did for him decades ago. The familiar
criticisms of Hall being obsessed with Shakespeare, the appearance of one of
the ‘luvvy’ crowd and the play, let us be honest, which is so often appalling.
In fact I have never seen a watchable Dream
since school. But against the odds we get the real thing, a captivating
production with some wonderful performances. Apparently when Dench took the
role of Titania all those years ago she was a young, pretty flighty queen of
the fairies wearing but a few tactfully positioned leaves. Here she is Queen
Elizabeth, queen of fairy and queen of the world. The dream may well be hers,
and she is central to the proceedings unfolding in front of us. The ‘story’
concerns the usual misplaced young lovers, Lysander loves Hermia but she is
promised in marriage to Demetrius who is loved by Helena. This preposterous
story is supposed to take place in ancient Greece, but is played in Elizabethan
costume and makes no real pretence at suggesting that this is anything other
than an entertainment for the virgin (fairy?) queen. Once the lovers have gone
into the forest the sprite Puck, fabulously played by Reece Ritchie starts
messing around with love potions, getting things so wrong that at one point
both young men have transferred their affections to Helena. Meanwhile the King
of the Fairies, Oberon is angry 
with his Queen
(although I found Charles Edwards portrayal simpering, or perhaps mildly peeved
rather than angry) and uses the same potion to make his queen fall for the
first creatures she sees on waking, which brings in the so-called
‘mechanicals’, a group of working men rehearsing a play for the Royal wedding.
Bottom is one of the greatest comedy parts in Shakespeare, and Oliver Chris
makes the stage light up the moment he appears. As we all know, he is
transformed into an Ass by Puck and Titania falls in love with him. This is not
so much high comedy as an extraordinary touching passage. Titania’s deep love
for the absurd Ass is quite extraordinary. This being the lightest of comedies,
all ends well with the lovers finding their correct partners and only Hermia’s
father is left upset and angry. And so the Mechanical’s play within a play
sends us off crying with laughter. I had been keenly anticipating Bottom’s
performance, but he is almost upstaged (or should that be downstaged?) by Leon
Williams Flute, Bottom’s young lover in the parody, all performed in a superb
black country (not Birmingham, accent pedants please note) accent. In this
final scene Shakespeare essentially takes the piss out of himself, and the line
about stringing up the playwright must, I am sure have been full of double and
treble entendre in the court of the fairy queen.
As you might expect from a Peter Hall production, the words are wonderfully spoken without exception. I was disappointed with the male lovers in the first half, but had forgiven them by the end; they were clearly cast for their comedy rather than their passion! Hermia and Helena are equally splendid and the four lovers ensemble playing in the woods is a delight. There is music, superb singing, a suitably sparse set and wonderful performances. It was notable that at the end Oliver Chris and his mechanicals received as great a cheer as Dame Judi and the fairies. A triumph indeed.
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