There is not a weak link on the stage
Summer seems to have run its race in the capital. Greys skies, drizzle and a Tube Strike really highlight a somewhat depressing change of seasons.Trying to bring back the joy of summer, The Southwark Playhouse presents one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, writes Christopher Peacock.
This production becomes the latest of the Playhouse’s Shakespeare for Schools shows which they have been producing for decades. Toby Hulse takes the mantle of director but more importantly it is his adapting of the play into a whole new script that creates a more approachable show for a younger audience.
The show opens set in an early 20th century home with six children playing in their grandparents’ playroom. They decide to put on a play for their grandmother on the promise of iced buns as a treat. This is where the Shakespeare enters, the play that they devise is what we recognise as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This adds another layer to the play within a play construct which some find hard to get their heads around. When things get a bit too wordy or over-complicated with the children playing multiple parts, the kids snap back to themselves and ask why and bicker in quite comedic fashion. These explainers work to straighten out the love triangles of the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the love spells miscast by Puck and Oberon.
This production’s strength lies not only in the adaptation but with all the work from the production team. Many moments of magic and comedy come from the lighting, sound and stage design. This reimagining really works to capture the attention of the young school children that the show is aimed at. The holding of that attention then relies on the cast. There is not a weak link on the stage as their caricature and borderline slapstick kept young and old laughing throughout. Fintan Hayeck, whose character Robert gets to play Bottom, certainly makes the most of hamming up the performance and milking the laughs.
Introducing Shakespeare to a young audience can be a hard task and it does seem true that those earliest experiences of Shakespeare and how it is taught tend to shape the enjoyment into adulthood. Many endeavour to lift the action off the page and hurdle the challenge of the language, and in this version Toby Hulse succeeds.
Southwark Playhouse until Sept 27th.
Booking and full details: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/a-midsummer-nights-dream/
