A world that is at once magical, chaotic, and precisely controlled
There’s a near-sacred quality to the Globe Theatre, a space that transports you, luring you into the past, so a good evening always feels guaranteed. What I didn’t expect, however, was to leave ‘this Wooden O’ feeling like I’d just been to the best festival I could ever dream of: alive, invigorated, and thoroughly nourished by the experience, writes Leo Dunlop.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed with revitalising energy by Emily Lim, makes exhilarating use of the Globe’s unique architecture, conjuring a world that is at once magical, chaotic, and precisely controlled. Lim’s interpretation carries all the playful energy of a school production before it is transformed, dusted over with the full theatrical magic of Shakespeare’s words and world.
From the moment you sit down, a festival-like buzz spills from the stage into the crowd. Audience members drift onto the stage to practice dances; others queue to read snippets of Shakespeare aloud. Before the play has even begun, the audience is already gleefully surrendering to the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We are given permission to let go, to be swept up in its childlike whimsy and wonder.
Emily Lim, who has a history of working with non-actors, cleverly smuggles the audience into the play through Bottom and his troupe. These players feel untethered from time: they break the fourth wall, slip into modern language, and act as a bridge between our world and the world of the play. In doing so, they anchor the audience somewhere between Shakespeare’s magical, ancient setting and the immediacy of the present day.
We are immersed further into this mystical world through the work of designer Aldo Vázquez, whose vibrant set bursts and blooms with colour and illusion. Accompanied by a small live orchestra, with music by Jim Fortune, the story erupts into life. The line that usually ends at the edge of the stage dissolves, spilling out and embracing the Globe itself, and all of us in it. The open roof allows the outside world to drift in, with overhead planes momentarily transformed into passing creatures in this enchanted woodland. As the sun slips away, the play seems to breathe differently, its magic illuminated all the more in the dark.
All the actors bring a wonderful sense of rhythm and physicality to Shakespeare’s language so that the story is fluently and compellingly translated, and no one is bewildered or shut out.
Much of this sense of wonder coalesces in Michael Grady-Hall’s Puck. He becomes our guide through Shakespeare’s shifting worlds, drawing out waves of laughter as he charms and flirts with the audience. Or perhaps it’s the magic of his bubble machine that persuades us of his brilliance? Either way, he is utterly captivating.
This is a wonderfully tonal piece, a communal interpretation that brings every audience member into its jubilant embrace. In doing so, some of the finer emotional tensions between characters are softened, but it feels like more than a fair trade for the atmosphere it creates. As confetti rained down at the end of this play-full experience, I couldn’t help but notice the young girl sitting in front of me, beaming excitedly beside her dad – her first visit to the Globe. What an extraordinary introduction: to be welcomed so fully into the magic of theatre, and into the genius of Shakespeare.
This is a production that will undoubtedly delight audiences of all ages, and one of the most joyful theatre experiences I’ve had in a long time.
Shakespeare’s Globe until August 29th.
Booking and full details: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/
