A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Flabbergast Theatre / Wilton’s Music Hall

Despite some impressive physical theatre techniques, Flabbergast’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream fails to cast a spell at Wilton’s Music Hall.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

I know A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most frequently performed of Shakespeare’s plays, but I do enjoy it nonetheless.  I like its rambunctious energy, its humour, and the weaving together of its various storylines.  I’ve seen many a version, from a technicolour fiesta at Shakespeare’s Globe, to a drug-fuelled cautionary tale by a youth theatre company, to a pared back pastoral comedy cycled around the country by touring actors.  I had high hopes for this latest incarnation by physical theatre company Flabbergast.  These hopes, however, did not come fully to fruition.

The thing about A Midsummer Night’s Dream is its light and shade.  There’s so much going on you can really create different energies and tempos from the different stories.  Looking at it holistically, I think the missed opportunity in this version was doing it all in one range.  There are different techniques at play, don’t get me wrong.  A little commedia dell’arte.  Clowning.  It’s not incongruous for Wilton’s Music Hall, which has seen plenty of vaudeville in its time, I’m sure. 

But the energy is consistently high, which at over two hours makes it a very tiring show.  The lovers are frenetic and shouting.  Oberon and Puck clown around.  The mechanicals are dialled up to 11, with masks that swallow some of their words.  The impact, based on overheard interval conversations, is that those not familiar with the story already found it hard to follow.  There were entire scenes I wasn’t listening to because there was a fight or some other distraction going on in the foreground.

The Right Company but the Wrong Play?

Other than pointing to something different needed in the direction, it suggests to me that this isn’t the right play for this company.  And I say that partly because the un-Shakespearean bits had a totally different and much more enjoyable energy.  If you arrive early or hang around in the interval, you will experience something much more playful and gentle.  The company sing, warm up, and interact with the audience in a way that comes across as genuine and engaging. 

During the play within a play at the end (where in other productions I recall being in fits of laughter) I found myself thinking ahead to my transport arrangements. Add to this that my favourite moment during the second half of the play was when Puck (Lennie Longworth) was moving through the stalls offering popcorn and gave an audience member a genuine fright, and you’ll see that I was not focused on what the company might have wanted me to focus on.  It’s just a bit too over the top, and with a few too many moments which drag, to maintain audience attention. It was the moments outside of the play which worked best, in my opinion.

But back to why I think it may be the choice of play which is the issue. There’s a lot of talent within this international company, and some flashes of real promise. I enjoyed Longworth’s playful energy as Puck and physical comedy. Paulina Krzeczkowska’s Hermia is excellent: brave and honest. But then we start to get into more caveated praise. Krystian Godlewski is genuine and funny, but perhaps too much so for Oberon. Particularly when he’s on stilts for no apparent reason. The Athenians only really get going towards the end. The mechanicals are an interesting study in the application of clowning and masks, but are otherwise relentless. The set (a wooden haywain, design by Henry Maynard who also directs) provides interesting levels and spaces. The lighting (Rachel Shipp) is elegant and effective.

I would like to see this company again, but in a context where circus skills, physicality and consistently high energy are a strength rather than feeling like I’m in a midsummer night’s fever dream.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 2.5/5

A Midsummer Night’s Dream on at Wilton’s Music Hall until 20 April. More info here.