A Midsummer Night's Dream - Bridge Theatre - London

To London on the 16.13 to see Nicholas Hytner's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Bridge Theatre:

As far as I could recall, I hadn't seen this play since I was a member of the lighting crew on a school performance back in 1971.

By tube to London Bridge, into the Hays Galleria branch of Costa for a quick snack and then, dodging the drizzle, we made our way along the Thames to the Bridge Theatre:

Coats checked, we made our way to our seats in the front row of Gallery One:

We were both somewhat stunned at the transformation of the theatre since we were last there in March.  The raked 'stalls' had been removed to create a 'pit' (à la Globe) and two galleries of seats now filled the space previously occupied by the stage; this would be an immersive theatre production.  The pit started to fill up:

After a couple of minutes of scanning the growing crowd in the pit it occurred to me that this was not the most obvious play for a group of conservative Christian theatre enthusiasts to attend:

and so it proved; these were members of the cast.  As another review described it, "a group of singers dressed like refugees from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale entered the performing area and processed through bemused promenading audience members, singing a dirge-like song".

This beginning to the play did nothing for me, and I really didn't see the point of it.  On the other hand, the movement of the singers, every couple of minutes, to face a different quarter of the auditorium did provide a chance for the standing audience to get used to the fact that there were, amongst them, a number of highly skilled and effective "movement stewards", whose job it was to ensure that none of the audience impeded the action of the play by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The first half sped by, and after drinks and exorbitantly expensive ice-creams we retook our seats for the second half, to find members of the fairy kingdom already engaged in energetic pre-performance acrobatics suspended from the ceiling:

This is the most impressive Rachel Tolzman (as Bedbug):

and here she is in rehearsal.

So what of the performance?  I should say, first and foremost, that I thoroughly enjoyed the play - or should I perhaps say "show", since this was not an experience for purists.  Much of it was extremely funny and cleverly staged.  Certainly it has garnered lots of rave reviews.  

Still, at the back of my mind, a little voice was asking me "but how much of this is due to Shakespeare's original play, and how much to the modern day add-ons?"  Retaining Oberon and Titania as traditional male and female characters, but then exchanging not only their lines but their actions as well, resulted in Oberon, and not Titania, falling in love with Bottom.  Cue lots of knowing looks, a shared bath, etc, etc - and lots of laughs - but did this enhance or reinterpret the play, or did it feel a bit like a traditional sit-com where the straight man (in both senses of the word) provides the laughs by ending up kissing another man?

In a similar vein, Puck was played as an athletic, camp, Northerner - with the diction to match ("come, my furry Queen...").  Was his performance funny because of Shakespeare or because of the way he had been cast?

Does it matter?  Clearly not, to most of the audience and the vast majority of reviewers (see the list below).  I, on the other hand, couldn't help feeling that Hytner and some of the cast were sometimes going for cheap laughs.

Perhaps this is unfair carping - as noted above I did enjoy it, and would encourage anyone else to go and see it - especially since it is being broadcast live to cinemas on 17th October - the clip here may help you to decide if it's your cup of tea.

Reviews

• Arts Pod
• At Home He Feels Like A Tourist
• British Theatre Guide
• BritishTheatre.com
• Cultural Capital
• Culture Vulture
• Curtain Up
• Ebony Online
• Evening Standard
• Felix Online
• in a merry hour
• Jewish Chronicle
• London Box Office
• London Theatre
• Londonist
• Metro
• Mind the Blog
• monstagigz
• Much Ado About Blogging
• Partially Obstructed View
• Peter Viney's Blog
• Rev Stan
• Smiths (Goldsmiths University’s Student Magazine)
• Stagedoor
• The Arts Desk
• The British Blacklist
• The Common Sense Network
• The Guardian
• The Independent
• The Lady
• The Man in the Grand Circle
• The New York Review of Books
• The Stage
• The Times
• The Upcoming
• The View From the Circle
• Theatre Weekly
• There Ought to be Clowns
• Time Out
• Times Literary Supplement
• Variety
• What's On Stage

Although all the information available had indicated that the performance would be over by 22.10, at 22.20+ we were still in our seats and applauding, which meant that the chances of getting back to London Bridge to catch the tube to St Pancras for the (booked) 23.08 home started to look increasing slim.

A snap decision to flag down a cab which, in spite of the rain and the Friday night traffic, got us to St Pancras significantly poorer but with around 8 minutes to spare.

There was just time to capture this:

before we boarded for what turned out to be a somewhat extended journey, as line works meant that we were re-routed through Melton Mowbray and eventually approached the home station, counter-intuitively, from the north.

Home, and bed by around 02.00.