Peter Viney's Blog

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare

Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Designed by Bunnie Christie
Choreography by Arlene Philips
Composer Grant Olding

London’s newest theatre (and technically., I’d say the best)

The Bridge Theatre, London
Saturday 22nd June 2019, 14.30

CAST:

Oliver Chris – Oberon / Theseus
Gwendoline Christie – Titania / Hippolyta
Kevin McMonagle – Egeus
David Moorst – Puck / Philostrate

Paul Adeyfa – Demetrius
Tessa Bonhom-Jones – Helena
Isis Hainsworth – Hermia
Kit Young – Lysander

Hammed Animashaun – Bottom
Jermaine Freeman – Flute
Ami Metcalf – Snout
Jamie-Rose Monk – Snug
Felicity Montagu – Quince
Francis Lovehall- Starveling

Charlotte Atkinson – Moth
Chipo Kureya – Peaseblossom
Lennin Nelson-McLure – Mustardseed
Rachel Tolzman – Bedbug
Jay Webb- Cobweb

The space 12-15 minutes before the start. The glass cage has not yet appeared.

One day late … June 22nd. Or rather just half a day after Midsummer Night.

We went in ten or fifteen minutes before the start. They say The Bridge is a totally flexible space. Last time it was a deeply raked proscenium theatre. Now there are two galleries running round four sides over an apparently flat floor, where the “groundlings” are mingling. You can buy a standing ticket for the full excitement. The flat floor must conceal a great deal below. We were seated in the lower gallery as befits our age and knees. They trundle on a large glass box on a plinth, and in it, silent, dressed all in grey, is Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons, captive of Theseus of Athens. She is magnificently Amazonian … Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones. She is motionless. She is accompanied by the whole cast as a choir, dressed in grey with white bonnets for the women, echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale. They’re singing some religious sounding stuff.

L to R: Oliver Chris as Theseus, Gwendoline Christie as Hippolyta, Isis Hainsworth as Hermia,  Kevin McConagle as Egeus

The movement stewards are shepherding the audience back to allow a central plinth to rise from the floor, bearing Theseus (Oliver Chris) and Philostrate (David Moorst). Cold, smart suited. Theseus starts his speech in front of the baleful captive eyes of Hippolyta, (wooed by the sword, indeed) when Egeus (Kevin McMonagle) pushes through the crowd and climbs the steps onto the stage, demanding that his daughter, Hermia should marry Demetrius or die. But she loves Lysander- two new satellite plinths slide into view with the young men. As Theseus reels off threats, Hippolyta pushes the palm of her hand against the glass, exuding her sympathy for Hermia …

Yes, it is the most elaborately staged play I have seen outside of the Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. The syle is immersive – and they write in a joke about that for Bottom too. The movement stewards are a major role – and are rightfully called up for encores. They will be shifting and shepherding that live audience while stage areas sink and rise across the flat space.

The Rude Mechanicals L to R: Flute, Bottom, Mistress Quince, Snug, Snout

Next up, the introduction of the Rude Mechanicals, the Athenian workmen preparing a play for the competition to appear in the Theseus-Hippolyta nuptial celebrations. Hammed Animashaun starts it off as Bottom, and ad Mistress Quince (a frequent gender swap) calls up the actors, the ad-libs start. There will be many, but they do point out gender-switching humorously. The main difference is “lion” which we’re accustomed to seeing played by a shy, nervous, tiny person. Here Jamie-Rose Monk swaggers on bum-butting her way though the cast. Big, aggressive, terrifying and very funny.

Now it’s Titania (Gwendoline Christie) who is giving Puck (David Moorst) instructions.

Into the forest … and we start to see the use of the soft trapezes. David Moorst is Puck, one of the best we’ve seen too. This is highly athletic stuff, and all the fairies have circus training. Some of the work on the soft cloth trapezes is first-rate Cirque du Soleil standard – including David Moorst, who we have seen as an actor. He had three months circus training for the role.  The Peter Brooks production fifty years ago changed the way everyone sees the play, and he had introduced trapezes and circus training. The five decades since have seen it become vastly more elaborate.

This is where the reviews start to differ. Some 300 lines of the play have been exchanged between Titania and Oberon.  As usual APB (After Peter Brook), Theseus becomes Oberon, Hippolyta becomes Titania. In this version it will be Oberon who is given the love potion by Puck, now urged on by Titania. It will be Oberon who falls in love with an Ass (i.e. Bottom). Some were confounded, some were outraged. Before we went I thought, ‘Oh, no, not more Globe style gender blind stuff.’ But I was wrong. Both actors remain equally important, but the switch allows “new light through old windows.” It’s not that fashionable 2019 kneejerk gender fluid thing at all. Moreover, it works. It works well.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a robust play. it can take whatever you do with it. This was a different idea, I suspect linked to the casting of Gwendoline Christie, or Brienne of Tarth, more naturally in an active role than a passive one.

Hammed Animashaun as Bottom

The second Rude Mechanicals rehearsal is a feast of ad-libbing and audience interaction and I’m not going to spoil it, but their shock of seeing Bottom with Ass’s ears is timed quite differently. Some reviews mentioned the amount of ad-libbing. That’s what comedians do, and it’s surely what they did in the 16th Century too. It was one of the funniest scenes of the last few years for me.

This is during the interval- not part of the play

Onto the second part … the interval has ten minutes of the fairies doing their full trapeze act above us. Brilliant.  Also we now have a more fixed set of sloping bedsteads (one of which Hermia will leap over, and another which Puck will disappear into in a flash.

We’re into the lovers in the forest. They’re still having fun, as Puck and Titania swing overhead. They pop the love drops over Demetrius and Lysander causing them to snog furiously then as it wears off, staring at each other in shock. Though with some food for thought. They enjoyed seeing that bit of mischief so much that they repeat it with the girls, Hermia and Helena who also fall into a snog. The boys got laughs, the girls got encouraging whoops, and the lads rushed over to watch. We won’t go there. This was NOT a bit of forced LGBT Pride propaganda, it was seen as an instant decision by Puck and Titania to have a bit of fun with these mere mortals.

In the round indeed. Part two Helena and Demetrius on centre stage and bed. Lysander and Hermia bottomn right 

That Hermia (Isis Hainsworth) v Helena spat (Tessa Bonhom-Jones) is always a marvellous scene, but as Hermia is being restrained she lets out an obscene ad-lib (or rather modern textual addition) that had the audience in tears of laughter, and the light Scots accent helped. All four lovers are entwined on one bed lifted high above the stage (s). The lovers were exactly what you want. Initially I thought Paul Adeyfa as Demetrius and Kit Young as Lysander might look too alike – ethnicity and hair style, but their performances soon differentiated them.

Lysander(Kit Young) restrains Hermia (Isis Hainworth). You’ll have to go to hear what she says.

We need to know what happened to Oberon (Oliver Chris)’s hilarious love scene with Bottom (Hammed Animashaun). Another plinth rises silently into place revealing them in a bubble bath, apparently naked for the scene where the fairies have to scratch his ears etc.  A couple of changed lines here that raised ire from some (e.g. Bottom says to Mustardseed Give me you fist …), but got lots of laughter on the day. They emerge and modesty is protected beautifully in a way that got a huger laugh.

As the spell is removed from Oberon’s eyes, ‘I Can see Clearly Now‘ booms out – the sound system is superb. Then a massive sheet is unfurled and spread over the dancing audience. The idea relates to Slava’s Snow Show where a spider’s web floats over the audience to music. As the play ends a giant moon ball bounces over the audience … another idea from Slava’s Snow Show. And why not reference Slava’s Snow Shoe as well as the Cirque du Soleil? Both are such significant theatrical events that feedback to serious theatre was just waiting to happen. It has. The sheet moves over and disappears and the set has changed. Magic.

L to R Hammed Animashaun as Bottom, Oliver Chris as Oberon, Gwendolen Christie as Titania

The forest over … and back to Athens, and a central platform rises from nowhere. Theseus and Hippolyta are back in hunting clothes with Egeus, and all three have rifles.

The lovers awake … Tessa Bonham Jones as Helena, Isis Hainsworth as Hermia, Kit Young as Lysdander, Paul Adeyfa as Demetrius, confronted the hunting party

The Pyramus and Thisbe play is one where I think I’ve seen every idea, but no, or at least not so elaborately. Philostrate is David Moorst, as usual, doubled with Puck. Philostrate is the compere to announce the four competing entertainments, and four satellite plinths slide up from the floor. It’s done like a talent contest on TV (we loved the second competitor, girls dressed in red balloons popping them with cigarettes.) The Rude Mechanicals are in purple sweatshirts with RUDE MECHANICALS in large white letters on the back.

They are chosen (reluctantly) … cue talent contest music. It’s the most elaborate I’ve seen that done. It’s a superb Pyramus & Thisbe play but with no costumes, and the only props a laser sword, a torch and two bricks. Virtually every recent one has been more elaborate with funny props and costumes. The three courtly couples are on three plinths, and for a change they keep all the comment lines, then add some, even walking into the scene. When they finish we get a hip-hop routine from the Rude Mechanicals, which gradually the couples join in with.

David Moorst as Puck

Overall- the best staging we’ve seen, and the movement stewards are so integral to shifting so many people around. It ends with a circling dance involving everyone, then the bouncing moon.

The end: Oberon and Titania dance, watched by Puck. The audience hold hands and circle them.

It’s hard to say “the best” in retrospect, as we’ve seen so many productions. Before I started this blog, we would never miss a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream if we could possibly get there. David Moorst as Puck stands along with Richard McCabe, Lucy Ellison and Katy Owen. The four best Pucks. We’ve not seen a “better” Bottom than Hammed Animashaun.  Others of this quality were Christopher Logan for Headlong and David Troughton for John Caird. Oliver Chris is one of the very best Theseus / Oberon performances. Gwendoline Christie is such a radical Titania that it’s impossible to compare her with (say) the so different Sheridan Smith in the Michael Grandage Season. But they all worked, as did every part. Like the Peter Brooks production, which we saw on tour at Southampton and who waved us all to the car park, they exuded the air of  “a company.”

The end: the “moon” bounces around the theatre

It is our favourite play. We saw the Peter Brooks production. We saw the John Caird RSC production with Richard McCabe as Puck. Then we saw the RSC Play for A Nation version (twice). We saw the Emma Rice Globe production (twice) plus the TV broadcast, and the DVD. All of those productions defined a 5 star play. Nicholas Hytner’s production at The Bridge Theatre is the most elaborate and also the very best of the lot. I wish I had a sixth star. We’ve already booked to see it again with our older grandkids.

*****

MUSIC CREDITS

They credit two found songs … Beyonce’s Love On Top closes the first half. Then there’s Dizee Rascal’s Bonkers and Florence & The Machines Only If For A Night. They don’t credit I Can See Clearly Now and I’m still wondering whether it was the Johnny Nash version or Jimmy Cliff’s later one. They don’t credit Je t’aime either – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

SECOND VIEWING

Saturday 27th July 2019, 14.30

Five weeks on. Even better.

•  Gwendoline Christie as Hippolyta in a cage did not come on until the start: 14.30. Was she fed up of standing in frozen position in the cage for ten minutes or more? The pre-show choral singing was still around 12 minutes.
• It was 11 minutes longer – 2 hours 51 minutes including interval, rather than 2 hours 40 minutes as on the Bridge website. Much of that was the amount of excellent business added to the Pyramus & Thisbe play, especially Theseus- Bottom interaction.
• The lovers had improved – not that there was anything wrong before. Confidence? Whatever it gave an added swing to all their work.
• Oberon got the “immersive” line but Bottom explained to The Wall that “it’s in the round” and moved her physically. We both thought that was switched. Oliver Chris, David Moorst and Hammed Animashaun have “licences to ad lib” but the extended Pyramus & Thisbe play had them all doing more. We’d forgotten The Wall’s exasperated oath.
  
• 27th July
• At the end, when the balls bounced around, Oberon, Titania and Aegeus made their retreat. The younger cast members, led by Puck stayed in the crowd in the pit dancing with the people with tremendous enthusiasm. I guess both Oliver Chris and Gwendolen Christie are “autograph and selfie famous” so know not to be there!
• Still the best version ever. We’ll see the live to cinema broadcast too.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

I don’t usually comment on people’s opinions, but here I will. I understand 5 stars, I understand 4 stars, I understand Quentin Letts’ 2 stars- he really took against it, and one of his qualities as a reviewer is being unafraid to swim against the current (He gave Bitter Wheat 4 stars when his co-critics mainly chose 2 stars). I cannot understand 3 stars. This production demands a strong response, be it 5 or 2. But I am reminded that the play is NOT in Billington’s 101 Greatest Plays, and a lot of dull stuff is. It’s Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, joint ‘greatest play’ with Hamlet.

5 star
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph *****

I’d go so far as to say that this is the most accomplished Shakespeare production of (Hytner’s)  I’ve ever encountered. True, I took the standing option (auditorium seats are available) so my pulse quickened partly by dint of being caught up in the riotous mêlée. But in its mixture of serious insight and frisky innovation, by-the-book straightness and surprise queerness, it’s not just a show for (almost) all ages but one that deserves to be talked about for years to come.

Kate Kellaway, Observer *****

Designer Bunny Christie is fearlessly in charge of levitating, ivy-entwined brass beds that alarm as much as any circus act. And there is no shortage of actual circus acts as sleazily glamorous aerialists play the fairies and sensuously doodle in the air, dropping from their cloth perches like hieroglyphs – a wonder to behold.

Henry Hitchins, Standard *****

Poking fun at the vogue for immersive theatre while also embracing the genre’s potential for frenetic playfulness and immediacy, it’s funny, sexy and romantic.

Time Out Users *****

4 star
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ****

Even if you ignore all the bells, whistles and man-snogs, the fact of the matter is that Hytner has assembled a preposterously good comedy cast. For me, Animashaun’s guileless, enthusiastic Bottom was probably man of the match, but Chris’s sensitive Oberon, Christie’s ethereal Hippolyta/Titania and Moorst’s twitchily anarchic Puck were all tip-top, as were the marvellously detailed smaller performances from the fairies, lovers and Mechanicals. It is quite something when a production can have an actor as good as Felicity Montagu – aka Alan Partridge’s PA Lynn – in the relatively minor role of a luuvie-ish take on the Mechanicals’ leader Peter Quince. 

Dominic Maxwell, The Times ****
Paul Taylor, Independent ****
Allanah Dorli Jones, Londonist ****
Stuart King, London Box Office ****
Cindy Marcolina, Broadway World ****

3 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian ***

Titania speaks lines normally assigned to Oberon while Oberon speaks hers. It is a startling reversal that has loss as well as gain. The bonus is that it heightens the comedy to see Oberon falling head over heels for an ass: the sight of Chris lasciviously nibbling the erect ears of the translated Bottom is one I shan’t soon forget. The payoff comes when, returning to Theseus, Chris is forced to soften his sexual authoritarianism by recalling his dalliance as Oberon with a male donkey. But, while the role reversal gives Titania/Hippolyta unusual agency, it has perverse side-effects. The great speech in which the fairy queen laments the death of her votaress sounds odd coming from a man. I’d also argue that you don’t need to fiddle with the text for the play to offer a critique of male power hunger.

Natasha Tripney, The Stage ***
Mark Shenton, London Theatre ***
Ben Dowell, Radio Times ***
Daisy Bowie-Sell, What’s On Stage

2 star
Quentin Letts, Sunday Times **

Those who cherish A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its bucolic escapism should look away now. Nicholas Hytner’s production is in-your-face millennial, mucking about with the text, swapping Oberon and Titania’s lines, and suggesting that Bottom wants one of the forest fairies to come and give him a seeing-to. Ho, ho, ho, went the first-night groundlings, for this show repeats the promenade staging that brought Hytner his first success at the Bridge with Julius Caesar. Confronted by hip-hop, a clap along and facetious off-script asides, these audience members fell in line, giggling at the introduction of gay splicings among thefour young lovers.

LINKS ON THIS BLOG:

OTHER PRODUCTIONS OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC 2011
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Headlong 2011
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Filter 2011
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Selladoor 2013
• A Midsummer Nights Dream – Handspring 2013, Bristol
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Grandage 2013
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Propellor 2013
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream RSC 2016, ‘A Play for the Nation’ at Stratford (February)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream RSC 2016 Revisited Stratford, (July)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2016
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – BBC TV SCREEN version 2016
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, 2016
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bath, 2016
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Young Vic 2017
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill, Newbury 2018
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2019
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill on Tour, Poole 2019
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare, Wimborne 2019

NICHOLAS HYTNER
Young Marx, by Richard Bean & Clive Coleman, Bridge Theatre 2017
Othello, National Theatre, 2013
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010
People, by Alan Bennett, National Theatre on tour 2013

OLIVER CHRIS
Young Marx, by Richard Bean & Clive Coleman, Bridge Theatre 2017
King Charles III, TV version, 2017
Twelfth Night, National Theatre 2017
Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use The F-Word, Chichester 2016
King Charles III, 2014
One Man Two Guv’nors 2013

DAVID MOORST
First Light, Chichester 2016
Peterloo (FILM)

KIT YOUNG
Macbeth, Wanamaker Playhouse 2018