The last time the Open Air Theatre tackled the play was with a famously high-concept Big Fat Gypsy Dream with a very dark heart, but Hill and designer Rachael Canning have gone for a much less specific overall theme.
It yields some interesting ideas but over the course of the evening they resolutely refuse to coalesce into a coherent whole. The fairies' language being BSL is a great idea, but never feels like it comes from the same production as the (not particularly effective) attempt to make them into frightening manifestations of the woods coming to life. There's a theme of using stage illusions to create the fairy magic that's quite soon forgotten, while Myra McFadyen's Puck is like Janette Krankie, if Janette Krankie was a murderous haunted ventriloquist's dummy... She's exactly like Janette Krankie.
Among the lovers, Gabrielle Brooks' Hermia is endearingly brisk and feisty, while Pierro Noel-Mee's Demetrius constantly getting the shit beaten out of him by the other characters is a good running gag (and it's Demetrius so it's not like you can entirely blame them.) Over with the rude mechanicals Joshua Miles' incredibly shrill Thisbe voice can't be doing his vocal chords much good but makes for a good gag when Flute keeps reverting to his own voice to ask for a prompt.
The big draw in this particular subplot is Future Dame Susan Wokoma, who gives an especially fresh take with a rather innocent, vulnerable Bottom - her demands that she play all the roles in the play are childlike enthusiasm rather than bombast, and her scenes as the ass might be the most chaste I've ever seen that particular story done: She shily, politely but firmly rejects Titania's advances, but (once her initial terror of the fairies abates) entertains them just enough to continue to get waited on hand and foot.
Her waking Titania up with a rousing chorus of "2 Become 1" is a big laugh in a production that's too short on them overall. In fact for the second show in a row the venue's size feels like a major issue - although it took everyone until nearly the interval the warm up, the rows nearer the stage sounded like they were having a much better time than those of us behind the central gangway, who were noticeably more quiet. It's all amiable enough, but while this Dream is far from a nightmare it doesn't feel like the kind you remember for too long after waking up either.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is booking until the 27th of July at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.
Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Jane Hobson.
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