A Review of Headlong’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

We all know the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, can visualise the characters and many can even quote certain passages. Over the years (and over the course of this blog), I have seen many renditions of this particular Shakespeare. For me, it is a sign that the warmer months are on the horizon when the mumblings begin yet again about a new production of this iconically summery play. However, last night’s performance forced me to rethink a lot of my preconceived notions of the play, the performers doing something I didn’t think was possible: they surprised me. Hundreds of years later and there are still ways to place a new spin on things!

Where does one even begin? I suppose we begin at the beginning, with arguably one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters; Puck. Suffice to say, from the moment Sergo Vares steps onto stage, dressed in a wonderfully outlandish costume, he draws the eye, not disappointing for a single second. Here is an imp who less flits in and out of scenes, as struts. But it is the opening which remains in the mind. A moment which instantly invokes extreme levels of discomfort from the audience, as Puck eats a banana for just a couple of beats too long, forcing a length of silence that this modern society is not used to. You could feel audience members shifting in their seats, coughing in their awkwardness! This sheer brilliance melting into a play which surprises at every turn, taking liberties with Shakespeare’s iconic lines, and blending different monologues and motifs of dreaming from across the corpus to create a cohesive idea. With borrowings from Mercutio’s iconic monologue to the words ‘perchance to dream’ integrated into the set, this draws the audience into the main theme of dreaming, while also pulling them out of the suspension of disbelief for moments to question why that line doesn’t sound quite right. While one could call many aspects of the play ‘jarring’, another word that comes to mind is Artaudian. From that opening, to the loud and out of place musical moments (who doesn’t need a piano rendition of Billie Eilish in their lives?), there are so many moments in this play which are slightly off kilter and this is the sheer brilliance of the piece.

One thing which is certainly off kilter is the setting of the play, much of which takes place in a wintery forest rather than our typical understanding of a midsummer night. Max Johns’ set is created in shades of white, easily morphing from opulent palace to snowy forest and back again. Within the forest setting, easily to most memorable moment is that of the snow fall, which truly does add a sense of childlike magic to the play. This magic can be found in the costumes as well, the fairies appearing in tutus which echo that of Puck. I particularly enjoyed the motif of single glove, which links the costumes of Puck and his master.

We expect multi-rolling from this play, particularly the roles of Hyppolyta and Titania and Theseus and Oberon, whose volatile relationship adds a new tension to their scenes, underlying the play with a more dangerous element which can be taken as humorous… until the final moments. However, here we have far more multi-rolling than is typical, drawing the human characters into the fairy world with an ease that helps draw the parallels ever closer and enabling a smaller touring cast. We lose some of the mechanicals (here played as staff of the palace) in the process, yet the choice is navigated with such ease that one soon forgets this modification. No review of Dream is complete without a discussion of Bottom and Danny Kirrane’s performance is as memorable as you would hope, bringing further humour into a play that is at once comical and slightly sinister.

In an endeavour to not spoil anything, I will end this review by simply saying that this is the best play that I have seen in a long time and, undeniably, one of the best Shakespeares that I have ever seen. Directors Holly Race Roughan and Naeem Hayat have breathed new life into this age old play… and THAT ending! Bringing the darker side of the play to surface has certainly been the right decision, allowing the creation of something that is unfamiliar while still being the play we all know. Every member of the cast has risen to the challenge of this rendition and is a pleasure to watch. There really is no more to say other than to suggest you get yourself a ticket if you have not yet done so. And perhaps to question why swathes of the play have been altered but the short jokes remain, despite how close in stature the actors playing Hermia and Helena are.