Midsummer Nights Dream
The Globe, London
★★★★
 

IF there is any doubt that A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be played as a lark from start to finish, then this hyperactive Sean Holmes production will put such thoughts to bed.

Delivered with music hall panache throughout, every moment is milked for maximum silliness, while up in the gallery an off-the-wall, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah style band accentuates the absurdities with rude blasts of the tuba, trombone and trumpet.

Jocelyn Jee Esien as Bottom is a Max Milleresque bundle of double (and single) entendre, making an agreeable ass of herself in more ways than one, while Faith Omole as a fiery, sexually charged Hermia provides some of the best moments of outraged, boisterous confusion.

Even where the script doesn’t call for laughter, these players manage to induce a smile.

The younger members of the cast also contrive to make Shakespeare’s fantasy world appear surprisingly modern and worldly, to the extent that when Helena (the excellent Amanda Wilkin) talks of admirers “super-praising my parts,” the argot feels as if it’s straight out of south London rather than ancient fairyland.

Just a few items rankle, including the nature of Jean Chan’s costumes, which are a coherent carnival of rainbows for the fairy folk but a confused, Blake’s seven-style combination of sci-fi black and whiteness for the four lovers, while Puck — played to no obvious benefit by different members of the cast — is decked out, disappointingly, in a T-shirt, shorts and pumps. 

Likewise there appears no obvious reason why Titania’s bed in the forest should be a large recycling bin, or why Helena walks around constantly with an Ultra Dry-branded waterproof bag.

Puzzling though such quirks are, they at least add to the attractive eccentricity of the production, which may be their point. And they are easy to forgive.

As the cast comes to the end with a rendition of Caravan of Love, what endures is an over-riding sense of fun and merriment.

Not all versions of this play need be so manically frivolous, nor so lacking in insight and subtlety. But there’s certainly no harm in the approach, as the final, wildly enthusiastic response from the audience attests.

Runs until October 13: shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2019.