Mayhem, mystery and Midsummer madness

First appeared: Evening Star, Ipswich, June 7, 2006

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Mercury Theatre Company
Colchester Mercury until June 17

AS the laughter subsided and the lights came up, a boy of about ten gave his verdict. "That," he said, "was really excellent."

If Shakespeare is often seen these days as "difficult", the Dream has a double image problem. I mean, it's all about fairies, and magic love-potions, isn't it?

Well, yes and no.

The central fairy-figure, Puck, is a mischievous sprite who uses the potions to cause mayhem.

And while there is some romance and mystery, the emphasis in this cracking production is on laughter.

There is the farce of the young lovers, falling in and out of love with each other in a typically teenage tangle of passions.

There is the broad comedy of Titania, the fairy queen, getting amorous with Bottom the weaver, who has been made part-donkey for the occasion.

And finally, there is the hilarious play-within-a-play, when Bottom and Co present the comical tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe - and Shakespeare sends up his own earlier hit, Romeo and Juliet.

It's all superbly done by a quality cast of Mercury regulars.

Rosalind Philips wrings pathos and humour simultaneously out of the plight of the wronged and confused Helena .

Justin Grattan is a sparkling Puck at the centre of it all.

And Ignatius Anthony's braying Bottom is a hoot in more ways than one. He repeatedly brought the house down - as did all his company of "rude mechanicals".

This really is a Dream to entertain everyone.

I know the play inside-out, yet this production had me falling about as if it was all new to me. It had the same effect on those who didn't know it at all.

Enjoy.