Theatre review: A Midsummer Night's Dream(Regent's Park Open Air Theatre)

I doubt too many people would be surprised to know that A Midsummer Night's Dream ranks as the most frequently-produced play in the Open Air Theatre's history, although in my personal experience (this is now my third) they've not yet managed a production that's lived up to the perfect summer setting. Atri Banerjee's won't buck that trend, though at least in a year that's not served the play particularly well it's streets ahead of the Globe's current infantile attempt. The big idea behind Banerjee's version is to build up the role of music in the play, with the fairies becoming a folk band, playing songs Maimuna Memon has composed out of the lyrics Shakespeare has provided, as well as out of a lot of the poetry usually spoken. It's an idea that provides a lot of charm, lifting the scenes that the band underscores, but it does come at the expense of the comedy.

The story begins with preparations for the wedding of Theseus (Olivier Huband) and Hippolyta (Jenny Rainsford,) and it's a strong start for me as I'll always appreciate a production that refuses to be defined entirely by that line about wooing with the sword: Here they're an athletic couple in the middle of a fencing match, and they share the stern lines that initially reinforce Athens' brutal laws rather than being divided by them.

Their legal advice has been sought because Hermia (Hiftu Quasem) is refusing to marry her father's choice, Demetrius (Terique Jarrett.) Instead she's fallen in love with Lysander (Misia Butler,) and they run away to the forest to elope. They're followed by Demetrius and his smitten ex, Helena (Mary Malone,) setting the scene for the mischievous fairies who live there to confuse them with a magic flower that acts as a love potion.

The quartet of lovers can be the play's comic highlight, even if their story takes a while to warm up. Here they never quite get to that point, although Malone does manage to get the most laughs out of the best of the four roles, the increasingly exasperated Helena. But where I thought Naomi Dawson's set might give them options for physical comedy in their big setpiece scene, if anything the stage being a large staircase only seems to hamper what they can do.

The even broader comic subplot of the rude mechanicals also raises more smiles than actual laughs - Nadeem Islam's Bottom is very much a childlike take on the character, who needs to be flattered to stop him throwing a temper tantrum, and responds to Titania's sexual onslaught by helplessly giggling.

The production has also put some thought into how to make a deaf actor playing the main clown an integral part of the evening: Islam isn't completely nonverbal so the show uses a mix of modes of communication; mostly he speaks the lines while signing but occasionally he signs while another actor translates, and in the play-within-a-play he sometimes gets the comedy across through sign alone. There's also some jokes at the expense of his fellow actors forgetting that however loud they call for him when he's lost in the forest, he can't hear them.

There are a couple of relationships that are really nicely built up: Huband's Oberon and Georgia Bruce's Puck have a real playful chemistry that extends to them straying from the text just enough to keep it fun; and the awkwardness between Bottom and Flute (Issam Al Ghussain) on being cast as lovers quickly turns into a tangible fondness for each other.

So it's hard to dislike Banerjee's Dream, and Memon's music does always lift the spirits when it kicks in. But it's not easy to love it either when it misses so many of the comic opportunities the play provides.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is booking until the 18th of July at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park.

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.