A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – REVIEW OF 2019 SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Sean Holmes for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre can be described as exuberant, wild, irreverent, unfaithful, colourful, energetic, flamboyant, crowd-pleasing and crowd-grabbing. Many of these are positive attributes that may apply to the show seen on the stage. But there was one defect: it was not Shakespeare. You will hear most of the text, but the major thrust will be to get laughs and do as much as possible without attention to what Shakespeare wrote.

Let’s start with the two pairs of lovers who along with the Mechanicals will carry the bulk of the play with due help from the mischievous prankster Puck. Demetrius (Ciaran O’Brien), Hermia (Faith Omole), Lysander (Ekow Quartey) and Helena (Amanda Wilkin) are spirited and agile actors who can deliver their marvelous lines and entertain us. But they need to be directed to do so and not laden with gimmicks to draw in the audience.  Why are they not allowed to play their parts instead of jumping out of character to get laughs? 

Jocelyn Jee Esien as Bottom and Victoria Elliott as Titania.  Photo: Tristram Kenton

The same applies to the Mechanicals. Jocelyn Jee Esien is a spitfire as Bottom as are Rachel Hannah Clarke as Snug, Nadine Higgin as Quince, Billy Seymour as Flute, Jacoba Williams as Snout and “one of you” as Starveling. The last is an audience member who is supposed to provide more fun. That is hokey and unnecessary. The Mechanicals are hilarious as they are without pandering to the audience. The day I saw the play, one Kevin was invited from the audience and got some laughs but we would have done even better by sticking to Shakespeare and a professional actor.

Puck, who is a great driving force for humour in the play, is played according to the program by “some of us” meaning the cast. Do we really need four (or was it more?) actors with T-shirts marked Puck? And do we need a brass band that is ready to play and does play with annoying frequency? Actors grab a microphone and start singing and invite the audience to join in. I guess you just can’t trust Shakespeare so just add whatever nonsense comes to your head and hope the audience laps it up.

The appetite for getting the audience join in the performance seems almost insatiable. The spectators are happy to join in. Ask them to applaud, they will applaud. Ask them to sing, they will sing. Go out of character, do almost anything for a laugh, and they will laugh.

Holmes and designer Jean Chan want to establish a production that is noted for wild colours and costumes. Titania and Oberon, Theseus and Hippolyta, the fairies, the Mechanicals all wear costumes that are outlandish in design and wild in colour. 

Ciaran O'Brién, Amanda Wilkin, Faith Omole, Ekow Quartey. 

Photo: Tristram Kenton

In the opening scene we see a large, sealed box on the stage marked “fragile.” It is broken open and a woman with her lips taped appears. The garishly attired and oblivious Theseus announces that his marriage to Hippolyta is only four days away and he just can’t wait for the happy event. The woman in the box is Hippolyta and you can just imagine how happy she is. Peter Bourke plays Theseus and Oberon while Victoria Elliott plays Hippolyta and Titania and they do their jobs well. 

The current approach to productions of Shakespeare’s play seems to be to bring them to the lowest common denominator. Involve the audience, get a laugh, ignore the text, jump out of character, get someone from the audience on the stage and do any gimmick that your imagination can devise, and unacceptable production perpetrate.

Some day they may find Shakespeare again.

____________________

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare continues until October 13, 2019 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, 21 New Globe Walk, London. England www.shakespearesglobe.com  

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.