Peter Viney's Blog

By William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Globe
Saturday 15th July 2023, 14.00

Directed by Ellie While
Set Design Wills (Paul Williams)
Costume Design Takis
Composer James Moloney

CAST
Jack Laskey- Oberon / Theseus
Anne Odeke – Hippolyta / Cobweb
Marianne Oldham – Titania / Robin Starveling
Michelle Terry- Puck

Sam Crerar- Lysander
Vinnie Heaven – Demetrius
Francesca Mills- Hermia
Isobel Thorn – Helena

Rebecca Root- Quince / Moth
Mariah Gale- Bottom
Sarah Finigan – Egeus /Snug / Peaseblossom
Tanika Yearwood- Snout / Mustardseed
Molly Lugan – Flute / Fairy
Lizzie Schenk- Fairy

MUSICIANS
Zands Duggan – percussion
Sophie Creaner- saxophone . clarinet
Zac Gvi- MD / Saxophone / clarinet
Adrian Woodward – trumpet / Hang Drum
Hanna Mbuya- tuba

More than one review mentions that this is The Globe’s fourth version of the play in a decade (2013, 2016, 2019, 2023). Given the open air and the general vibe of open air theatre, I’d do it every other year, with Twelfth Night on the alternate years. So every third year is fair.

The set has been decorated, though minimally with twisted vines and creepers:

Saturday afternoon. Bright sunshine (while my iPhone informs me it’s raining). The open air groundling area is packed. The galleries are full. This is an ideal Shakespeare’s Globe situation.

Before I start, I’ll note the issue ANY production has. It’s my favourite play. I’ve seen many five star versions, and I am convinced that Nicholas Hytner’s production at The Bridge 2019 with Oliver Chris as Oberon (but with Titania’s lines) was the best of all. I saw Peter Brooks version, John Caird’s rubbish tip version with Richard McCabe as Puck; the RSC in 2012 had Lucy Briggs-Owen play the definitive Helena. Sheridan Smith gave my ultimate Titania in the Grandage version. Then there was that 2016 glorious 5 star year – Emma Rice at The Globe, and the RSC’s Play For A Nation version with amateur groups in each city playing the Rude Mechanicals. We saw both productions twice. I note thatThe Comedy of Errors had mainly 4 star reviews the day before. This has a mix of 3 star and 4 star, though to me it was the better of the two productions. I believe that’s because most reviewers have seen some of those 5 star versions I’ve mentioned.

Just looking at the cast list, an unusual choice is having one actor doing Theseus and Oberon, then having two actors for Hippolyta and Titania. Since Peter Brooks realized that they never appear together so the fairy queen and king are dream projections of Theseus and Hippolyta, the vast majority of productions (though not all) have two actors for the four roles. Brooks had also worked out that was what Shakespeare’s theatre would have done. Jack Laskey also changes appearance and age dramatically for Theseus and Oberon, and Marianne Oldham is not only Titania, but Robin Starveling. I had expected Anne Odeke, who leads the fierce charging opening dance to present us with the angry captured Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, wooed by the sword (which is how Michelle Terry played it at the Globe ten years ago). She seemed more lovey dovey.

The production is a triumph of stage management and costume changes. Apart from the four lovers, Puck and Bottom, everyone is doubling or tripling roles. Some of the costume changes from fairies to mechanicals look impossible. The costume design by Takis is ‘fantasy’ with an Elizabethan (vague) nod, but coherent and strong.

The opening dance is becoming the norm. Fortunately no one wanders on and starts declaiming anymore.

There is a lot of gender switching. The Rude Mechanicals are all female which is not unique. I have seen a female Bottom more than once before (Oooh! You are awful!) Egeus is female, again not a first though I don’t know why they didn’t simply change ‘father’ to ‘mother’ which happened last time there was a female Egeus. Puck is an airy spirit. Gender is not relevant.

Where to start? The boss, Michelle Terry as artistic director is Puck. I’ve had my say on actors as artistic directors before. Laurence Olivier is always cited, but Olivier was a director too. Mark Rylance worked at The Globe, but all in all, it is a director’s job. Dominic Dromgoole and Emma Rice both did great things at The Globe. It’s gone down since. You try directing the boss. I have. My boss used to appear when we did the advertised The Importance of Being Earnest, Private Lives and A View From the Bridge (they were in the language school brochure). It always started, ‘Do feel free to direct me, dear boy.’ It was a waste of breath, especially as I had no say in casting him. As Artistic Director, Michelle Terry was Cordelia and The Fool in King Lear, Viola in Twelfth Night, Hamlet in Hamlet, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Percy in Henry IV Pt 1, Adam,. William and Jacques in As You Like It. The Taming of The Shew was recast nightly. Her husband Paul Ready passed the audition for that and for the lead in Macbeth too. Yes, it was exactly what the old actor managers and their partners did in the past (see Terence Rattigan’s Harlequinade). Yes, she is and always has been an outstanding actor.

Her Puck has been picked out for particular praise. She got several spontaneous bursts of applause when we saw it too (and milked them amusingly). The concept is novel. It’s Puck as The Green Man or alternatively, Worzel Gummidge. That’s why critics say it’s a darker version of the magic forest. She moves slowly, like an Ent, plodding around the stage. She plays for laughs. Frankly, she upstages and scene steals and the audience love her.

Is it Puck? Puck has been at the best swinging on a trapeze for Peter Brooks and then Hytner in 2019. It has been done as a moving light with voice over.

And I serve the fairy queen
To dew her orbs upon the green

Act II, Scene 1, Fairy

In 2020 lockdown, our garden was full of foxgloves, huge ones. There was no traffic, no pollution in lockdown. Three of us watched a blue orb dancing among the foxgloves. No, it was not a phone artefact. We all saw it. Yes, we had fairies at the bottom of the garden. That’s what Puck has to be a light, mischievous Mercurial magical presence, not a nightmare from The Wicker Man. A major part is tight interaction with Oberon. We never got that double act feeling. OK, she went down an absolute storm. All her lines were crystal clear too (not a given).

The fairies had exotic costume to boost them and they came as a group of six Titania looked the part and the costume helped.

The Lovers come next. The physical business is all fairly set “After Peter Brooks”. They even did the dramatic door blocking. They change less than most characters. They always work. Both Demetrious (Vinnie Heaven) and Lysander (Sam Crerar) carry on a long tradition of excellent acting in those roles. Usually, directors put a slight spin. The spin here is enormous.

That is casting Francesca Mills, a reduced height actor, as Hermia. Hermia who inspires the T-shirts , posters, tea towels and badges at both the RSC and Globe with the slogan Though she be but little she is fierce.

We have seen Francesca Mills before. She was the Jailer’s daughter in Two Noble Kinsmen at The Globe and stole the show. Person of the Match. She was in Emma Rice’s Malory Towers. She is extremely good and since Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones, reduced height actors have a new perspective.

The normal thing is to cast an actor around 5 foot tall for Hermia, and one 5’7″ plus for Helena. The taller the better. It’s a major role for Francesca Mills, and I’m sure she is used to the lines about a dwarf, an acorn. There’s still something inherently exploitative because it’s not a “height blind” choice. It’s making fun of her height. No doubt she’s totally aware of that.

The same come up in casting Arthur Hughes, an actor with a genuine withered arm, as Richard III at the RSC. That was not ‘disability blind’ either. However, because of her height, there is something intrinsically uncomfortable with the love scenes with normal height actors. A touch of the Rolf Harris. I wouldn’t have done it, though I might well have cast her elsewhere. Puck perhaps! That would be using her height for effect but not drawing laughter about it.

They cast a tall Helena to accentuate it. I liked Isobel Thorn’s Helena. She had 2023 late teen gestures and intonation off pat.

The Rude Mechanicals.

Mariah Gale is Bottom, which should be the lead comedy role, though that’s hard with your boss as Puck and getting laughs. Nevertheless she succeeds from the moment that she tells Peter Quince that she prefers to pronounce her name ‘Bow-tome.’ They stick to it after that (for non-UK readers, the surname Death is pronounced ‘Dee-Ath’ and ‘Bastard’ is pronounced ‘Bu -Stard. She is particularly quick to pick up incidents. When she first discovers she has ass’s ears, a baby happened to cry in the front row. She looked round towards the baby, and said, ‘I know,’ ruefully. Later when the baby cried in Pyramus & Thisbe, she repeated it to even greater laughter. She has natural comic talent. I remember her as Isabella in Measure for Measure, and you can’t get much different! Then she was Margaret in the Henry VI plays at the RSC last year. That has no comedy either.

For us, there is always the question of can they possibly find new business in the Pyramus & Thisbe play. We’ve seen so many. The lovers and newlyweds look down from the balcony, a Globe advantage. This version adds good costume (the lion looks hilarious, as does the Moon.)

The Wall reproduces the Globe back wall design. Peter Quince gabbles his opening speech in a nervous rush (which I have seen before) and Moon can’t be heard by the others through the full face mask and is precarious on library steps, but the big one here is Molly Logan’s Thisbe.

Not being a man who is reluctant to play a woman removes possibilities (Shakespeare knowingly called the character ‘Flute’ and ‘one who plays upon a flute’ had a meaning), but she replaces it by doing Thisbe sung in a full and powerful operatic voice. Never seen that before, and it’s one I’ll remember. First rate. Pyramus’s elongated death scene was up there with the best too.

I went in expecting it to be a vigorous but undirected Globe afternoon. It was much better than I expected.

****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

4 star
Marianka Swain, The Telegraph ****
Sam Marlowe, The Stage ****
Fiona Mountford, The i, ****

3 star
Kate Wyver, Guardian ***
Andrzekj Lukowski, Time Out ***
Gary Naylor, The Arts Desk, ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG:

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, Bridge Theatre 2019
• 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
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2023
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2024
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Everyman 2024, Southampton MAST
• Dream (streamed, interactive), RSC broadcast 2021
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wanamaker Playhouse 2025

MICHELLE TERRY
Macbeth, Wanamaker, 2018
As You Like It, Globe 2018
Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013 (Hippolyta / Titania)
As You Like It, Globe 2015
Love’s Labour’s Lost– RSC
Love’s Labour’s Won RSC

JACK LASKEY
As You Like It, Globe 2018 (Rosalind)

ANNE ODEKE
The Winter’s Tale, RSC 2021 (streamed) (Autolycus)

MARIANNE OLDHAM
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Old Vic 2017 (Gertrude)

VINNIE HEAVEN
Malory Towers, Wise Children 2019

FRANCESCA MILLS
Malory Towers, Wise Children 2019
The Two Noble Kinsmen, Globe 2018

MARIAH GALE
Measure for Measure, Globe 2015 (Isabella)
Henry VI- Rebellion (as Minnie Gale) RSC 2022 (Queen Margaret)
Henry VI – Wars of The Roses (as Minnie Gale) RSC 2022 (Queen Margaret)
Richard III – (as Minnie Gale) RSC 2022 (Queen Margaret)