A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Our Shakespeare correspondent, Hazel Davis, reports back from dreamy Stratford: 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford 

Imagine getting the chance of a lifetime to be in an RSC production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and bloody Thomas from Ghosts, one of the most beloved TV series of recent years, turns up as Bottom. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO? 

Upstage him, of course. That seemed to be the MO of RSC debutant Ryan Hutton, whose Lysander blew the socks off the audience earlier this month at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Playing the lovesick Athenian as a young spiv, he leaped and phwoared about the stage like Mickey from Only Fools and Horses (*checks notes* oh he played Rodney in the stage show), and stole our hearts to such a degree we barely noticed when “Thomas!!!” took to the stage. I say barely noticed, my tweens weren’t the only young people in the room who vibrated with delight when he appeared. And it was a TINY bit distracting. Especially when he got all his kit off and did some donkey sex with the queen of the fairies.  

But the show stood its ground and Eleanor Rhode’s fresh interpretation of the oft-performed play meant that Matthew Baynton (“Thomas!”) could be free to display what really was a superb Bottom safe in the knowledge that he wasn’t carrying the whole thing alone.

Though Hutton, along with Rosie Sheehy’s unsettingly calm and charismatic Puck and Dawn Sievewright’s spiky Hermia were real standouts, the whole play was a group effort, and that group really enjoyed itself. 

Disclaimer: My 11- and 12-year-old are seasoned Shakespeare fans and this was their fourth time at the RSC. However, even with that pretentious knowledge in the bank, take it from me that this was a family-friendly performance (minus the donkey sex).

So often, Shakespeare can be delivered in a visually appealing and well-enunciated way and nobody knows what the hell's going on (but obviously we all laugh along uproariously anyway) but with this one, every line and every plot point was delivered with clarity and sparsity, leaving no confusion and nobody guffawing at a joke that hasn’t actually been funny since 1596. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs until 30 March 2024 
Tickets and more info: www.rsc.org.uk/a-midsummer-nights-dream/  

LINK: Hazel Davis reviews her favourite Stratford hotel