Shakespeare done the right way | A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre | Review

The same as most literature and/or theatre students: I. LOVE. SHAKESPEARE. I love reading it, analysing it, performing it and seeing it performed. With one condition. If it is performed well.

Please don’t think I’m being overly critical of people who perform, let alone perform Shakespeare. As I said in my first post on here – I am by no means qualified, but I am at a point where I think I have enough lived experience and knowledge to be able to think critically and make an appropriate judgement. This is also not to say those people making and performing the shows aren’t talented and I am berating them personally.

I have seen more Shakespeare productions than I could count, both amateur dramatics and professionally. I have seen spectacular productions. The Bridge Theatre’s Julius Ceasar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I also loved when I saw it at The Globe, and Ian McKellen’s fantastic performance as King Lear are but to name but a few. I have sadly also seen some productions I am less enthusiastic about. Luckily I have seen more memorable performances than the disappointing ones.

What inspired me to write this post is Bridge Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream being released onto youtube as a part of National Theatre at Home. I was fortunate enough to see this production 3 times when it was running, and at the time I remember thinking: This is how Shakespeare should be done. That’s not to say I didn’t think this for all the other productions I saw that I thought were special, but this was the biggest wake-up call for me. 

This production frequently sold out during the run, filling both the seats and standing space, and brought in audiences of all ages and upbringings. People who loved, liked, were indifferent to and (for one person I met at a show), hated Shakespeare all came to see this show. This is, in fact, my favourite Shakespeare play and this production has been my favourite I have ever seen..so why exactly was this production so stellar?

For a starting point: it appealed to everyone. Everyone who was there that I saw and spoke to, had the absolute best time. The show was made appealable to people of all backgrounds, ages and understanding of Shakespeare. How did it appeal to everyone? By ensuring the language Shakespeare plays are written in wasn’t a barrier to telling, understanding, getting invested in and enjoying the story. The script wasn’t changed, but the delivery of lines, the acting choices and the way the show was presented. It’s very easy with big monologues, I personally think, to just rattle off the lines because they are there. There are times where I as an audience member have felt that a performer is just saying their lines as they are going through the motions. They sound bored, which in turn bores audience members. I do not need to be qualified I don’t think to say this: You do not want to bore you audience. If an audience member is bored, they will be less inclined to listen. With Shakespeare, you need and ideally want your audience members listening. There are beautiful passages of text in Shakespeare plays and to have any of them lost on audience members because of how they are delivered just feels a bit sad to me.

This brings me back to my point earlier. It’s bad enough for the boredom and loss of interest in the show to happen to someone who likes or loves Shakespeare and is familiar/comfortable with the plays. If you get someone who doesn’t like or hates Shakespeare and is being made to watch the show for whatever reason – there is a chance there to open their eyes and change their minds and show what incredible work Shakespeare’s is…but if the delivery is flat, and thus boredom sets in…they’ll think that all Shakespeare is the same and thus, your performance is wasted on them.

The next point: Having interesting staging. Granted, this is individual to every show, be that Shakespeare or not, play or musical; but in my own opinion, I think the way a show is staged can make or break it sometimes. I don’t think having interesting staging means having endless props, scenery, elaborate costumes. Sometimes this is beautiful and can help the members of the audience suspend their disbelief, but there is a flip side to this where it doesn’t work and it can even be too much.

The staging of a show can simply be what the performers do on stage and how they make the most of their space and their colleagues. Shakespeare doesn’t have to be traditional and it doesn’t have to be boring. In Shakespeare, the same as any other show – there is freedom for creativity and for cast and creatives to make it different and interesting. Modern-day staging, changing genders of characters or just swapping characters around, mixing both modern and traditional time periods within a show, thinking of new and creative ways to present characters – such as having fairies do acrobatics as a representation of them flying…the possibilities are as vast as one’s imagination. Obviously, some creative ideas could cost more than others to put on, but I don’t think all creativity and having interesting staging has to cost money (correct me if I am wrong!)…it just requires a little more time to think outside the box. I know this probably is a lot easier said than done, but (and remember, this is all my own opinion, and I have 0 qualifications to say any of this so feel free to trash everything I say)…surely it’s better to take more time and think of new and inventive ways to adapt a show that will be memorable and make people want to come and see it, than wanting to just get out a show fast which lacks this imagination and feels like just another version of the same play people have seen before.

Next up: acting choices. I feel like I have seen one too many Shakespeare plays where performers are just stood on stage monotonously speaking their lines into the abyss, stood static. The Shakespeare plays that have stayed with me is where I can feel the energy behind every word a performer is saying, I believe what they are saying wholeheartedly and the performances given make me feel something. As I said before, Shakespeare’s plays and characters are very much open to interpretation. People can make the roles and the lines they deliver their own. If you think a character would deliver their lines a certain way, or be doing something – whatever that may be – and it fits within whatever is currently happening, do it! Naturally, all acting choices have to be okayed by the director and other cast members, but my assumption would be that as long as the acting choice of what the character would be saying/doing/acting like is justifiable and it fits in within the context of the play and scene..there shouldn’t be a problem.

One thing I really liked about the Bridge Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the little ad-libs. They weren’t overly used so it didn’t detract from the original script and they never felt unnecessary. An example is when Helena is convinced that Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius are trying to antagonise and spite her by having Lysander and Demetrius both pretend to be in love with her. At one point, Demetrius is trying to show his infatuation of Helena and is holding her arm and Helena (Tessa Bonham-Jones) throws out the line “get off me, you’re pathetic”. Obviously not a Shakespeare line. But worthy of the cheering and the applause she got every visit I went and she said those words. In fact, I will go so far as to say: it is thanks to Tessa’s portrayal of Helena that for the first time I actually don’t dislike Helena as a character. Until this point, I had just seen Helena as this annoying, whiny, lovesick girl chasing after someone who doesn’t love her back. Tessa’s acting choices made the character of Helena likeable to me. I found her hilarious and was even rooting for her – something which has never happened before.

This actually applies to all the cast. They didn’t make their characters cardboard cutouts, they brought them to life. From the passionate and heartfelt declarations of love to the sarcastic and humorous outbursts when there is chaos…even right down to facial expressions cast members to make when they aren’t the main focus of a scene. Watching Lysander react to Helena complaining that Demetrius doesn’t love her at the start, watching Titania and Puck watch the mortals’ chaos of everyone loving who they shouldn’t, watching the 3 pairs of lovers watch the rude mechanicals play at the near end…I found on return visits, watching characters observing what is going on was as enjoyable as the show itself. The acting in this show by all of the cast are phenomenal. They didn’t just play the characters, they seemed to *become* the characters.  

And now we have reached my final point. I should hope this goes without saying, but something I think can make or break a Shakespeare play is having cast members who genuinely want to perform and be in a Shakespeare play. Performers who enjoy Shakespeare’s work – reading and performing it and have a passion for the work. If someone hates Shakespeare, or just doesn’t like performing his work, then being in a Shakespeare play may not be the best idea. I feel fortunate enough that I have never seen a Shakespeare play where someone clearly didn’t like the show they were in, however, I have seen this happen in a different show in the past…it felt awkward and I actually felt sorry for the cast member for having to put themselves through a job they clearly didn’t like, in a profession (I hoped) they loved. When someone is clearly loving what they do, is passionate about their show and character, is having fun on stage…I can feel that as an audience member. Where an unenthusiastic performer can have their lack of energy noticeable in the audience, the same can be said for someone who is the opposite and clearly has joy for what they are doing. Their passion and energy can feed into audience members and in turn make the show more enjoyable to watch.

And that is how, in my own humble opinion, Shakespeare ~should~ be done. The Bridge Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, a well known and loved play, is a clear example of this. There is a reason that out of all of the productions of this play I have seen, this is my favourite. This play is an example of Shakespeare done the right way. It was a theatre highlight of 2019 for me and is a play that I love as fiercely now as I did the first time I ever saw it. It has stayed with me from the first trip I took and it is a show that I think will always stay with me now. It’s every bit as magical, hilarious, and beautiful as A Midsummer Nights Dream should be and more. It is an outstanding piece of theatre, perfectly put on and flawless in its delivery.  I truly think this version of the play has encompassed all of the above points I have made on what I personally look for when I go and see a Shakespeare performance.

I hope this post didn’t make me come across like my say is the be-all and end-all – this is just what I think. If you disagree with me, or anything I have written, I would be more than happy to have a discussion! In the meantime, I’m going to go and watch the show on youtube as much as I can before it gets taken off because I am completely and utterly in love and obsessed.

Much love.

(If you read all this…you get a virtual gold star from me)

*Side note – if you want a chance to see this phenomenal show, National Theatre at Home has released it onto their youtube channel, where it will stay until Thursday. You can watch it here. There is also an option to donate to the National Theatre. I’m sure I don’t need to tell people how the theatres are suffering right now and need our support.*

*I have no rights to images used in this post and all rights go to original owners*