A Midsummer Night's Dream, theatre review: Subversive slapstick fizzes with vitality

For all of this production's messy subversiveness, it doesn’t lose sight of Shakespeare’s concern with role play, romance, irrationality and vexed relationships, says Henry Hitchings
Stand-out star: Ferdy Roberts as know-it-all stagehand Puck
Tristram Kenton
Henry Hitchings29 February 2016

The experimental company Filter makes a welcome return to the Lyric Hammersmith with a crowd-pleasing take — first seen in 2011 — on one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies. Purists may complain that the irreverent approach means we get only a small percentage of the original, but the play’s spirit is preserved.

Ed Gaughan’s nervy Peter Quince begins by teasing us with the possibility that Sir Ian McKellen will appear as Bottom. Somewhat unsurprisingly, a backstage hiccup prevents this, and into the breach steps Andrew Buckley, posing as a heckler before becoming a bungling volunteer. The slapstick that follows involves vast quantities of flour and blue paint, a food fight and topical jokes, while a band onstage serves up Filter’s trademark sonic smorgasbord.

For all its messy subversiveness, the production doesn’t lose sight of Shakespeare’s concern with role play, romance, irrationality and vexed relationships.

Co-directors Sean Holmes and Stef O’Driscoll ensure that it fizzes with vitality, never straying into cloying whimsy, and there are enjoyably robust performances.

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1/50

Ferdy Roberts’s Puck stands out — a know-it-all stagehand weighed down with tools. When he isn’t crashing through walls he’s quick to plonk himself in a chair and crack open a beer (or an aerosol can of whipped cream). Meanwhile Jonathan Broadbent’s Oberon may sport a superhero’s outfit, but he’s error-prone and huffy. Instead of being an authority figure, he amusingly illustrates the way life’s absurdities deflate self-importance.

Until March 19, Lyric Hammersmith (020 8741 6850, lyric.co.uk)

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