A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC / Unicorn 2026

By William Shakespeare

Edited by Robin Belfield

Directed by Rachel Bagshaw & Robin Belfield
Set & Costume by Lily Arnold
Composer and sound design by Holly Khan
Video and captions design by Will Monks

An RSC / Unicorn Theatre Co-production

Royal Shakespeare Company
The Other Place
Stratford-upon-Avon

Thursday 23rd July 2026, 13.30

CAST
Chris Jared – Oberon / Theseus
Amelia Donkor – Titania / Hippolyta
Joséphine Fanssilja-Brookman – Puck

Boni Adeliyi – Helena / Starveling
Scout Worsley- Hermia / Peter Quince
Kaireece Denton – Lysander / Snug
Shahin Rezvani- Demetrius / Flute
Emmy Stonelake – Bottom / Egeus

In three days we saw the film of The Odyssey, Kenneth Branagh in The Cherry Orchard and this version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Guess what? This was outstandingly the best thing of the week.

A cast of eight. The four lovers double with the Rude Mechanicals. A fresh re-telling by a children’s company. 85 minutes with no interval. The RSC have been doing ‘popular first time Shakespeare one act’ productions of comedies in The Garden Theatre, then The Other Place. This is the fourth, though will the connection to Unicorn Theatre set it even younger? Not really.

The cast of eight has three men and five women. Bottom / Egeus (who also takes Philostrate’s lines) and Puck are female. A small cast production can focus things and the tangible effort can enhance … see The Watermill productions.

A proscenium arch is one of many possibilities at The Other Place. It was right for this. Are we the only ones who were fully aware of the homage to Peter Brooks iconic version of the play? We saw it as soon as we walked in. The set. Narrow doors. Two balconies, one either side. Ladders down. In place of Brooks’ circus trapezes they had tyres on ropes- with changeable lights inside. Unadorned set. They added four portholes. Brooks had it as white. This looked grey though lights revealed the light brown chipboard. Brooks had twin drummers. This has recordings. We saw the touring Peter Brooks at Southampton. Late1971? 1972? Yes, it was one of the greatest 20th century pieces of theatre.

The new feature is Creative Captioning. This is not simply subtitles or sur-titles, though the programme says two thirds of young people watch TV with captions (Are they listening to something else on headphones, one wonders). The creative captioning is projected on different parts of the set. It must require huge discipline from the cast. You have to be in the right place, get the lines exactly right and resist the temptation to improvise business (though they “seem to” do so.)

Joséphine Fanssilja-Brookman as Puck
The words can appear anywhere and the other projected material also

The same projection gives the magic flowers and moves them. The locations ‘Athens’ or ‘Another part of the wood’ cover the entire set. They are in different colours and fonts. Some are huge, some very small and discreet. They’re totally brilliant. An example. The four lovers are asleep in the four corners of the stage. Each has ‘Z …Z…Z…Z’ projected over their heads. The captions do give text, but so much more. They comment, they amuse. The lighting plot can make the sliding flats opaque or transparent.

Then there’s costume. The mechanicals and Bottom are colour coded- they change costumes for the Pyramus and Thisbe play but remain colour-coded. The lovers have costumes in the court, then the “same” costumes with patches in the woods.

Editing. I’ve edited ELT versions of the play. They keep the original lines, but lose over half the lines in the original, yet it’s seamless. I’m lost in admiration for the editing.

*L to R: Lysander (Kaireece Denton ), Egeus (Emmy Stonelake), Hermia (Scout Worseley), Demetrius (Shahin Rezvani).*

The opening scene. I would never have thought of having the same actor play Egeus, the angry father and Bottom. Emmy Stonelake’s Egeus is Welsh, as is her Bottom. It’s an amusingly conspiratorial Egeus too, nudging and nodding at the favoured Demetrius. The photo is from the programme, a great souvenir because it has production photos. The programme at £4 is better than the Cherry Orchard programme the day before at £7. It’s priced to sell to an audience with kids.

*Hippolyta (Amelia Donkor) and Theseus ( Chris Jared)*

It’s hard to remember that until Peter Brooks, most productions cast Theseus / Oberon and Hippolyta / Titania as four actors. Since Brooks nearly every production (not quite all) doubles them, as I’m sure Shakespeare always intended the doubling. Here they make use of the tyre / trapezes.

The magic beings

*From the programme: Oberon (Chris Jared) and Titania (Amelia Donkor)*

The cuts fall fairly heavily on Titania and Oberon’s opening forest scene which is where I would put them, marvellous language but it slows the plot. Chris Jared was a suitably angry Theseus. Theseus and Puck work mainly off the balconies either side, though he uses the tyre swing to deliver the line ‘I am invisible.’

Titania uses the tyre swing too. I thought she might suffer from the lackof fairy attendants, but the projection lifted it. As it did with Oberon and Puck and the flowers.

If you’re casting a female Puck, as here, I like the fact that they go for charmingly “girlie”. Little squeaks of delight and shock. Tip toes. She’s a gorgeous Puck.

They get over the faeries with the recorded voices of children from Unicorn workshops.

The lovers

It all starts out so well …

*Lysander (Kaireece Denton)*, *Hermia (Scout Worsley)*

The lovers in the woods are highly physical, as in the Peter Brooks, catching Hermia in mid air (though they don’t manage the bit where she leapt sideways and was trapped horizontal across a doorway in the Brooks). The Peter Brooks had months of circus training with Oberon on stilts, everyone on trapezes and juggling. While they can’t do that they have youth, originality and better costume and effects on their side. Helena (Boni Adeliyi ) is tall and dark, Hermia (Scout Worsely) shorter and fair. Just as it should be.

*Helena (Boni Adelyi), Demetrius ( Shahin Rezvani), Hermia (Scout Worsley), Lysander (Kaireece Denton)*

Sliding flats (or walls) allow Puck to orchestrate the Demetrius / Lysander chase in and out with multiple disappearing.

*Lysander (Kaireece Denton), Puck (Joséphine Fanssilja-Brookman), Demetrius ( Shahin Rezvani*)

The lovers asleep (not the scene in four corners with z-z-z-z.) This is the end when they’re paired properly again. Given the time constraints, I was amazed they managed to squeeze them into the wedding scene before changing for Pyramus and Thisbe.

The mechanicals

The first rehearsal scene. Note the colour coding. They can easily lose one, especially as Peter Quince plays Wall. Even the scripts Quince hands out are colour coded.

Emmy Stonelake is a wonderful Bottom, completely controlling the stage. She was in Pride & Prejudice (sort of) though understudied the night we saw it. The Welsh accent helps- it’s obvious from the various texts that Shakespeare had a popular Welsh clown / comedian in the company, look you. They cast Demetrius, the burliest and toughest looking as Flute, who will have to play the heroine, Thisbe. Then Helena becomes Starveling, quiet and quaking with trepidation. Lysander, the sweetheart, becomes the lion.

*Kaireece Denton as Snug the Joiner, Shahin Rezvani as Flute, Emmy Stonelake as Bottom, Boni Adeyli as Starveling the Tailor*

The ears are done smoothly when Bottom becomes an Ass, and Emmy Stonelake treats us to a major song marching across the stage. The bower is the upper gallery, with Titania wearing a dress made of ropes to look sexy.

*The Bower. Emmy Stonelike as Bottom, Amelia Donkor as Titania*

The Pyramus and Thisbe plays adds letters to colour coding and Theseus and Hippolyta have done a fast change to wedding clothes. The four portholes in the set, used for the four lovers, are utilised. Egeus has replaced Philostrate as Master of Ceremonies, and does it through the wall (perhaps only having to costume the top half!). There was an accident with the moustache which really looked accidental (I bet it isn’t). They do a classic version, in that they use Peter Quince as the wall, and add no other props. Hippolyta and Theseus sit on the corners of the stage, legs dangling over.

Pyramus & Thisbe: They dance on. The royals are in white.

The lion and Thisbe

Pyramus and the Moon.

When we were doing ELT shows for students, the brochure written years before advertised an Evening of Shakespeare. We always did Pyramus and Thisbe and I always did The Wall. I am a connoisseur of Pyramus and Thisbe, and have noted many ideas over the years. This was straight. The chink was two fingers, and no rudeness in the positioning. Both deaths were very well done. No gimmicks.

They do the proper Puck farewell ending too, AFTER the final excellent dance, with Puck’s glowing ball. They prove their point that they can create ‘magic’ too.

It’s five star. The very top end of five star. The captions and lighting demand a sixth. It’s fresh. The cast are young. It’s an outstanding version. I’ve reviewed twenty-five other versions. Yes, it’s up there with the best.

It runs to the end of August at Stratford. You don’t need kids with you to enjoy every minute. We’d go again tomorrow if we could.

*****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

It was reviewed in London. It was reviewed there as “children’s theatre’ which is ridiculous. It’s an “all age” version not just a “young version.”

5 star
The Morning Star ***** (Stratford)

Mary Beer, London Theatre *****
“A breathtaking triumph”

Rhys Reviews *****

4.5 star
The Reviews Hub ****1/2

4 star
Oliver Stone, The Stage ****
Ruth Sealey, All That Dazzles ****
The Reviews Hub ****

3 star
Andrjez Lukowski, Time Out ***
Miriam Gillinson, The Guardian ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

CHRIS JARED
All’s Well That Ends Well, RSC 2013
As You Like It, RSC 2013
Hamlet, RSC 2013

AMELIA DONKOR
The Taming Of The Shrew RSC 2019
As You Like It, RSC 2019

Peter Viney's Blog

ELT, theatre, music reviews