Theatre review: A Midsummer Night's Dream(RSC/RST)

When a theatre decides when to schedule A Midsummer Night's Dream they tend to do so with a fairly literal approach to the title; if it shows up out of season that usually means we're in for one of the "darker and edgier" takes that honestly believes it's the first production ever to notice the line "I wooed thee with my sword" and proceeds to apply it to every scene, Joe. So it's refreshing to see Eleanor Rhode's new RSC production - the last Shakespeare of Erica Whyman's interregnum period - open in a very different way: The lines about winning love with injury are still there, but their context feels a lot less personal. The Duke of Athens and Queen of the Amazons' wedding is definitely an arranged one made as part of a peace treaty, but both of them are pawns in this situation, and Bally Gill's sweetly awkward Theseus is clearly intimidated by Sirine Saba's businesslike Hippolyta.

So when a man arrives demanding a brutal, archaic law is invoked so that his daughter is either married off to his liking or executed, it doesn't feel like Theseus is too steeped in the patriarchy to bother helping her, more that it would never occur to him he has the power to overrule the law. (Hippolyta wanders off carefully inspecting the legal document, which I like to think influences the way the story eventually pans out.)

This kicks off one of the two major plotlines of humans going into an enchanted wood and getting meddled with by fairies, as Hermia (Dawn Sievewright) and Lysander (Ryan Hutton) run away to elope, pursued by rival suitor Demetrius (Nicholas Armfield) and his obsessed admirer Helena (Boadicea Ricketts.) Over midsummer night the mischievous spirit Puck (understudy Premi Tamang) uses a love potion to try and mend the situation, only ending up causing even more confusion.

Rhode's production leans into the idea of the love potion as a drug - Puck has to be stopped from running off and taking it herself or offering it to the audience, and the projections and Matt Daw's lighting don't skimp on the psychedelic colours. I thought the show might lean more into the idea that the nighttime events are a literal dream or illusion for the characters, but instead it feels more like it's the audience who shouldn't trust their senses. Everything's just a little bit off-kilter, including Lucy Osborne's design, which in Lysander's mullet, Hippolyta's shoulder pads and Oberon's New Romantic look seem to be taking us to the eighties.

But the rude mechanicals in the other major plot strand come from the sixties, while Mathew Baynton's Bottom seems to have taken his acting inspiration from the kind of lauded mid-20th century performances that haven't aged too well - including Olivier's Dick (the Third.) Mitesh Soni leans into the idea that Flute is actually the better, more natural actor even while putting on a squeaky voice, in a climactic play-within-a-play that is, as it should be, the comic highlight.

Here we get the most physically awkward of the ways you can play Snout (Emily Cundick) as an actual Wall, a Pyramus death scene that seems to skimp on the gore before going in the complete opposite direction, and Starveling (understudy Tom Xander) playing the Man in the Moon as Sadako because sure, why not. Among the lovers Ricketts is the standout but she does have the best of the four roles; they're not the funniest quartet I've seen but they're funny enough.

But for me it's Gill and Saba who are the most interesting in their dual roles, the fairy characters definitely not heightened versions of the humans but their opposites: It's Saba's Titania who's got her head a bit in the clouds even when not under a love spell, and Gill's Oberon who's the more dominant character, not to mention managing to bring the sexy to the Adam Ant look.

It's with Oberon that any suggestions of a darker side lie, but even then I liked the way Gill suggests his experience with the humans softens him and teaches him some empathy. And having opened with a pair preparing for a political marriage, I liked that we didn't end with the complete flip to happy newlyweds we usually get. Instead Theseus finds the nerve to actually use his power to do the right thing, Hippolyta gains some respect for him for it, and the two go off not into the sunset or a steamy night of passion, but into figuring out that they might actually make the relationship work.

A couple of dozen Dreams down the line they won't all stand out but there's enough here to make it distinct, and more importantly than the old jaded Shakespeare veterans like me is the fact that this would be a strong introduction for the higher than usual amount of kids in the audience. They're likely there largely because of Baynton but those near me at least seemed to be laughing their heads off at everyone else's comic scenes as well. It's also a production that takes joy in theatricality from high to low tech - whether that's John Bulleid's illusions, a floating holographic flower, Bottom's ears moving of their own accord or the lovers suddenly disappearing through trap doors, I'm sorry to inform parents that some of them are going to lose their kids to a theatre addiction after this one.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is booking until the 30th of March at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Pamela Raith.