A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
The Whole Pack Theatre Company
Directed by Jessamy James
The Cockpit
Star rating: 4.5
I wish very much I’d seen this thoughtful, charming touring show earlier in its run rather than at the point when it finally came to rest in London at Cockpit Theatre. Some good things, however, really are worth waiting for.
Reimagined as a winter show for Christmas (preceded by Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to get you in the mood) it opens not in the usual place, but in a snowy wood where Oberon and Titania are quarrelling. And, incidentally, I’d never before spotted the all-too-topical climate change references in that scene.
Singing is a key element in this all-female six-hander. It is folksy, haunting, includes old carol “The Holly and the Ivy” and is full of colourful, skilfully articulated harmonies. The MD is Meghan Louise Taylor who really has done a splendid job. A trained, and evidently accomplished, opera singer, she also gives us one of the funniest Bottoms and the most imperious takes on Theseus, I’ve seen in years. She uses her physicality to terrific theatrical effect whether she’s idyllic because the fairies are scratching her back, upstaging her fellow rude mechanicals or pronouncing a potential death penalty on Hermia.
Amongst a strong cast, Jessamy James, for whom this is also her directing debut, is feisty as Titania, furious as Helena and, as Snug the Joiner, provides the voice of aggrieved common sense to offset Bottom’s high jinks in the Pyramus and Thisbe scenes. And Charlotte Frost delights as sweet, tricked Hermia and is splendid as longsuffering Peter Quince – the fresh, take on his prologue is a lovely bit of theatre. The multi-roling is neatly managed with characters creeping off stage to reappear very soon afterwards in different guises. Most of Amanda Beauchamp’s modern dress costumes, attractive as they are, are pretty simple to get in and out of at speed.
And James has come up with some ingenious directorial ideas. For example, there is, perforce, no noble audience to watch Pyramus and Thisbe so the theatre audience becomes a substitute – with a bit of participative banter led by Frost. Then the device which brings the action back to the plays final gorgeous speeches is entertainingly seamless. The quarrels and fights between the lovers in the woods work well too – with actors disappearing off stage but still shouting at each other.
I have probably seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream fifty times, I used to teach it to secondary school students and know the text almost by heart. The joy of this production is that it respects the text, most of which is still there. It’s astonishing how few big cuts are required to make it fly with only six actors. I also admired the way James and her cast brought out all the humour in the rhyming couplet sections – because some productions make little or nothing of this. And the occasional tinkering with the script was masterly. “Athenian knitwear” instead of “garments”, anyone?
The production sits on a very simple set in the Cockpit’s square space which has – imaginatively used – entrance points on all four corners. It’s colourful, full of humour and very beautiful: one of those rare shows it which it was quite difficult not to smile with pleasure throughout.
The Whole Pack is a newly formed theatre company whose aim is to explore and create versions of classic drama for all-female casts. This joyful, wintry Dream was its first show and I’m looking forward very much to seeing what they do next.
