A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Photo by Aaron Weight

Guest review by Aaron Weight, Director at Insert Laughter Here.

After being wowed by last year’s phenomenal (and sadly quite overlooked) production of Metamorphoses by the New Wolsey Young Company, I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit again to review this year’s offering - A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The scene was immediately set nicely upon arrival, with glowing neon ropes hanging haphazardly around the rafters above the stage, itself strewn with hundreds of paper flowers, and an appropriately Fae-court-invoking pale green light bathing the seats to welcome the audience into the space.

As the performance begins, the bold choices of design ramp up further with energetic flashes of light timed with crackling SFX and music thumping to announce the commencement of the magic, with projections on a wispy white backcloth adding to the mix. From here we are quickly gear changed into the start of the play proper - stark white-suited performers appearing and beginning with energy that unfortunately did not match in all cases.

It’s rather a mixed bag, with everyone putting in commendable efforts, but too many of their voices were lost by combination of the lack of microphones, and the crunch underfoot of the paper flowers - very pretty, but very noisy.

Photo by Will Green

I did find that the tone throughout was very back and forth. I think the boldness and modern take of the start wasn’t carried through very well. It was nice to see projected segments appearing now and then, but the rest of the performance felt very traditional and familiar.

Still, the scene has been set, and the action moves forward.

Next, we have the arrival of The Mechanicals, not announced as such but it’s a nice and welcome contrast given by their bold coloured outfits to the admittedly stylish, but sadly not very exciting, apparel of the previous players. The energy starts to return as we meet a very well-suited Bottom in Eleanor Weldon - stealing every scene she is in whether written to do so or not, though this did also serve to again highlight how meek a few of the other voices were. I could see they were having fun with the roles, but I couldn’t tell you what a few of them said in doing so. They would have benefitted from the use of microphones!

It should be pointed out that the voices were not helped by an exceedingly unsettled (and I imagine rather unrapt, given a lot of the ages) audience who whispered, rustled and at one point seemingly tried to out-cough one another. It did make it quite difficult for me to focus a few times though I must admit - and I’ve deliberately left it this long into the review - that I am not really a fan of Shakespeare’s works, and I do find them onerous at the best of times.

The gentle voices, the monochrome outfits, and the similarity of the names can make it difficult to follow the main body of the two couples who get mixed up, but the playful and slightly rakish energy of the two men, Max Doherty and James Hattan was enjoyable enough to carry us through regardless, and it was nice to see the very well handled moments of physical comedy that the couples shared a few times.

The introduction of Puck - Kaycee Totten - around this point was a welcome salve too. Another very good choice for the role, their mischievous manner was delightful to watch and, though arguably the most iconic of all their lines was rather rushed over, on the whole it was a brilliantly realised take on the part. I also really enjoyed the take on the two fairies, with a subversion of the ‘conventional expectation’ deftly handled by Joe Hullis as Theseus and Titania, and Wiktoria Zietek as Hipolyta and Oberon, both of whom had the appropriate gravitas for their respective roles, providing a nice grounding to lead us through the confusion of events that unfold.

On the subject of magic and transformation, as is so crucial in this story, I really liked the way that sound, lights, props, and set all worked together to provide the appropriately eerie whimsiness with seamless cohesion, a simple wave of hands and the curtains glide effortlessly apart to reveal as they need to. I also particularly enjoyed the cameo of Oakey Hand, senior technician at NWT, moving a large piece of scenery in full view, with a knowingly silly and playful pair of wings on.

My one detractor in this category was the - in my view - far too crude and hamfisted ‘union’ of the transformed Bottom and the beguiled Titania. A step too far for a production of this gentle nature, and particularly jarring when considering the ages of the performers. Understandably lots of uncomfortable audience members shifting around and laughing nervously for those thankfully rather brief few moments.

Photo by Will Green

I did feel that the energy and pace was lacking in the middle section too, with even the Mechanicals in the forest being unable to put much into it, however the main plot soon resolved well enough (though don’t ask me to tell you who, how, or why) and then the capstone was placed with the very standout section of this production - the finale presentation of the play within the play. With lights up, the fourth wall was smashed to pieces in a very enjoyable way, the wedding parties walking up through the auditorium, taking their place on the balcony to watch along with the rest of us - jeering and cheering appropriately throughout.

Eleanor as Bottom had a few more chances to steal the scenes, and oh boy did she take them - at one point I think relishing the joyful laughter of the audience for a little bit too long - but to her credit she definitely gave us the biggest laughs of the night, along with the rest of the ‘not going right’ mini play providing much needed comic relief. The end of this segment, with a very deserved sustained round of applause - to Theseus’s playfully vocalised annoyance - was then encored with another handbrake turn, this time with MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” as the closing song.

A brief extra inclusion before the curtain call gave us a brilliant snippet of Macbeth from a member of the Youth Theatre Squared group, who had themselves been providing projected interludes throughout the show. This served as a nice demonstration of the power and value of these opportunities for all the young people involved, nicely finishing with the cheers of the film crew around the performance who had been supporting and helping them overcome the task with pride.

Overall, there’s a lot to be commended with this production and the players were grinning with joy as they took their bows.

I guess the only significant shame of this production is that it’s only on for three days - no doubt the performances will all continue to grow with each show - and now there are only two chances left to see it. Do fly along for a night with the fairies if you can, you’ll find a lot of joy within.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is at New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich until 10 August 2024.

FOR FULL SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE