Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre 

Atri Banerjee‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MND) at Regent’s Park OAT plays interestingly with ideas of transformation and communication, connecting our contemporary world with the traditional Shakespearean piece. The production dips into the mythical, magical world of the wood, even if it doesn’t entirely plunge, but inspired casting choices nonetheless enable the audience to understand it anew.  

Nadeem Islam as Bottom gives the script fresh life with his animated, comic storytelling. A deaf actor, he augments the delivery through BSL, drenching it in lush additional emotion and detail. Islam uses his entire body, hands, face and voice to elevate the comedy, telling the tale differently and richly. It’s then a little disappointing that BSL is not used across the entire show, leaving communication only partial, but some scheduled performances do offer interpreters. 

Impressive too is the casting (Jacob Sparrow) of Mary Malone, a trans woman, as Helena, which brings fabulous complexity to the role. Her language of rejection and hurt resonates searingly with the lived experiences of many trans people. It’s delivered with dignity by Malone, who skilfully transmutes familiar attitude and humour to manifest weapons of self-defence. 

MND explores extremities of light and dark, laughter and struggle. This production tends to sit more in the middle ground; entertaining but neither rip-roaringly hilarious nor challenging in its handling of difficult issues. There are fun performances from Georgia Bruce as Puck and Olivier Huband as Oberon, but their ‘too cool for school’ characterisations leave them rather one note. A touch of vulnerability in Puck as the dead rise around him, or remorse from Oberon for his abuse of Titania would add richness to both. The mechanicals too are humorous, if not riotously funny. Although there are sharp performances from all, their play falls a little flat, with Bottom seemingly playing Pyramus’ death seriously, undercutting the required silliness of poor Francis Flute’s (an excellent Issam Al Ghussain) response. 

Naomi Dawson’s set design uses a steeply stepped wooden stage – clearly labelled as “This Green Spot” to firmly request suspension of disbelief. Atop of this the action moves from beige to bower, as a drawn-back curtain reveals a hidden, forest-green area where Jenny Rainsford’s elegant, powerful Titania and her literal fairy band (talented musicians Rachel Barnes, Amelia Gabriel, Rori Hawthorn and Damien James) are stationed. They become a little trapped in the space, only leaving it without instruments. Maimuna Memon’s glorious composition certainly brings delight, transforming Shakespeare’s familiar verse into song, but it also offers occasional discord to reflect the disruption of Hippolyta and Theseus’ spat. Meanwhile, Max Pappenheim’s careful soundscape includes subtle temporal shifting that links sounds of today with Elizabethan times, affording sensory disruption and creating a space to rethink our world. 

Transformation and confusion are key themes and although there’s a fair amount of both, the play somehow misses the magic that might be generated in the combination. Characters are very visible as they race around the open steps – even onto the roof – so it’s hard to believe them lost in the wood, where a few added plants are the illusion of nature. Bottom’s donkey head is big, blue and psychedelic but leaves him with two faces, meaning it’s hard to focus on either, even as Islam admirably performs with it uncomfortably poised. Some asides by Oberon and Puck, although funny, break the fourth wall but also fracture the narrative enchantment, leaving them no longer fairies but human.  

This show needs a little stretching, but the content is all there, ready. There is an excellent cast, and innovative, insightful features in the production might well cause you to dream up a new relationship with Shakespeare. 

Writer: William Shakespeare 
Director: Atri Banerjee 
Musical Director: Rachel Barnes 
Set Designer: Naomi Dawson 
Intimacy & Fight Director: Yarit Dor 
BSL Consultant: William Grint 
Associate Director: Amara Heyland 
Movement Director: Anjali Mehra  
Composer & Musical Arrangements: Maimuna Memon 
Costume Designer: Tomás Palmer 
Sound Designer: Max Pappenheim  
Lighting Designer: Joshua Pharo  
Casting Director: Jacob Sparrow 
Voice & Text Director: Emma Woodvine 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre until Saturday 18 July.