A Midsummer Night's Dream **

Noel Coward Theatre, London

EXCERPT: I hoped I’d come out of this play with a new found sense of respect for one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays. Sadly, I still don’t really understand its appeal, and was disappointed by the hammed up job Grandage, Smith and Walliams made of it.

I’ll admit it now: I’m not really a fan of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I hoped that Michael Grandage’s heralded production, with super stars Sheridan Smith (Legally Blonde) and David Walliams (The Office), would change my mind. No such luck. The West End audiences seemed to lap it right up, but then they do love a farce. And Grandage’s production - and Walliams’ stereotyped camp performance in particular - reduced it to just that, especially as it went on.

Grandage has done some quite rigorous and good cutting: tediously lengthy bits have been reduced, the variety of scenes feels impressive, and the whole thing is now wonderfully short. Very cunning, too, to get rid of any references that required the Indian boy to be actually on stage - he must have saved a bob or two by not needing to pay three child actors and their guardians to play the part. 

I actually thought the strongest moments were when the four lovers were onstage. These parts are typically seen as dull in comparison to the parts which feature the magical fairyland and ridiculous workers, but I felt the actors were the most proficient at the Shakespearean text (perhaps they have been more classically trained) and made most sense of it. Katherine Kingsley as the woebegone Helena steals the show and is absolutely superb, and is nicely supported by the other lovers. I was disappointed by Sheridan Smith’s performance as Titania, and the human Queen Hippolyta. She fails to show any real depth of character: she doesn’t have the gravitas, the humanity or the comedy that I expected of her. Frankly I also didn’t think either she or Padraic Delaney (who plays Oberon) made Shakespeare’s text easy to understand at all. David Walliams as Bottom is the epitome of stereotyped performance. If you find Walliams on a full-on gay rampage funny, you may well find yourself in for a treat; personally, I found it tiresome, felt like it reduced the part to just the one characteristic, and prevented him from investing Bottom with any depth.  

Grandage’s usually very inventive imagination feels pretty half-hearted for this production. The fairies have fun back-combed big-hair and funky clothing, but that literally provided the only visual excitement in a rather unexciting set, and even less dramatically engaging production. Perhaps Grandage is under severe budget restraints, and possibly looking towards his next season just a tad too much?

I hoped I’d come out of this play with a new found sense of respect for one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays. Sadly, I still don’t really understand its appeal, and was disappointed by the hammed up job Grandage, Smith and Walliams made of it.