Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Southwark Playhouse Borough)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The course of true love never did run smooth, and in this new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Southwark Playhouse Borough, a group of children find that playtime can be just as turbulent. Part of the venue’s ongoing commitment to youth-friendly Shakespeare adaptations, to which school groups are welcomed free of charge, Toby Hulse’s Midsummer puts children at the centre of the performance, a playtime as much as it is a play.

Six actors multi-roll not just as the characters of Shakespeare’s classic, and widely produced, comic fantasy, but also play the new roles of six young children who have tasked themselves with performing a play for their grandmother. Midsummer’s triple-plot grows out of their ongoing disagreements and desires for their performance, with Nancy insisting on the romance and fairies, and the boys demanding the opportunity to play an epic death scene, and so the group periodically come out of their play-within-a-play (and sometimes, play-within-a-play-within-a-play… withing a play) to correct one another or bicker about their parts.

With the framing device setting the show in 1905, Georgie White’s set and costumes are tasked with transporting us into this long-gone time, and allowing the children to create an even longer-gone time for their stories. There’s a business to the stage that can be distracting, but does effectively establish that we are in the playroom of an early 1900’s home, complete with creepy-eyed rocking horse and a piano for music lessons. Cleverly, set and costumes combine as curtains are pulled down as shawls, table-cloths are whipped away for fairy-king cloaks, and donkey-head ornaments used for a fateful transformation. The effect is a homespun, on-the-fly sensation behind much of the storytelling, grounded us further in the world of childlike wonderment and eagerness to explore new ideas.

Hulse also has a great deal of fun with the staging, the curtained window-seat used as a changing room when multi-rolling rears its head within the increasingly-convoluted production. A fun touch finds the flower which fairies Oberon and Puck use to enchant the wandering Athenians appearing through a sequence of progressively less successful magic tricks. Crucially, Hulse shows a clear understanding of how these make-believe games play out, with the odd tantrum over a plot-twist they don’t like and a habit for inserting their personal spats into the narrative – hence, in this version, Nick Bottom’s name, and transformation into a donkey.

All six players throw themselves gamely into their multiple roles, convincingly youthful in their portrayals and with faces as clean-shaven as they can manage to help sell the illusion. Dewi Wykes is particularly joyful as Cecil, who takes great pleasure in the part of Puck, while Lara Grace Ilori brings plenty of humour with some airheaded moments and deliberately-awful piano playing. Martin Bassindale and Fintan Hayeck are also delightful to watch, as they scurry about swapping between their roles and struggle to follow the repeated demands of the bossier children.

This bossiness comes mostly from Daisy Ann Fletcher as Nancy, the mastermind behind this Midsummer and the quickest to throw a temper tantrum when the love spells don’t go her way. In the beauteous roles of Helena and the fairy queen Titania (she is very good at ballet, after all!) she brings an authentically childlike wonder, and an even more childlike temperament. Opposite her as Oberon, among others, Andy Umerah manages to be a surprising striking fairy king as well as successfully shifting back in and out of a childish, disagreeing persona. Both make clear marks as the ringleaders of the kids, and it’s easy to imagine them vying for Nanny’s attention after their big finale.

It is debatable how much a school-aged child could take away from the Shakesperean aspect of the evening, but the show will likely act as a breezy and fun introduction for many. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a risky choice for an all-ages production, with its tripled-up plot and myriad roles, but such confusions are regularly mirrored by the players, who will stop mid-scene to question what on earth is happening, or who they are meant to be now. With brief moments of non-invasive audience interaction, and some fun nods to the fact that “everything in theatre is make-believe,” will serve as a good introduction to the artform for the youngest in attendance.

The concept won’t land for everyone, and adults making solo treks to Southwark Playhouse may find the framing more a distraction than a smooth introduction, but for its intentions to bring more children into the theatre, this Midsummer is whimsical and adorable enough to win many young hearts over. At a brisk 90 minutes, it’s certainly less daunting for newcomer parents than a full-scale performance. If you can imagine a junior (but far less accident-prone) branch of Mischief Theatre’s Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, that’s very much the vibe for this production, and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing this same group of young thespians prepare more classics for Nanny’s viewing.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until September 27th

For tickets and information visit https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/a-midsummer-nights-dream/

Photos by Charlie Lyne