A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow. To 17 November.

Glasgow

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
by William Shakespeare

Citizens' Theatre To 17 November 2001
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS 0141 429 0022
Review Timothy Ramsden 26 October

As magical and humane a summer night as you'll find in any season.Few Shakespeare plays have taken so much directorial abuse as the Dream, from being overladen with fauna to becoming buried in Freudian nightmares. At first Giles Havergal looks as if he's piling on the misery, as we're greeted by an assertive black screen with the title scrawled across it. The impression continues when this rises to show a bare, stripped stage. It's like dress rehearsal without the dress. Or the set. Or anything much.

Within moments we're under way. As the cast circle the empty space murmuring Dream phrases linked to magic and imagination while a lone figure sits in a corner with paper on a large box, it's clear this will be a voyage of the imagination.

Of course, that's still open to heavy-handed interpretation. The real sign of a director who's grasped the play arrives when this figure becomes Philostrate at the court of royal newlyweds Theseus and Hippolyta, then, caught up in his own imagination, involves himself in the action as Puck. Here is the writer imaginatively freeing his self in his creation. Over the next two hours others will enjoy the liberation process, freed from initial unhappiness.

Hippolyta's hopes of a happy marriage seem crushed when her husband sides with Egeus against his daughter's love. Patti Clare is fine as a Hermia who's clearly had a sheltered upbringing where she has got her way with girlishness. And how brilliantly the domestic tyrant Egeus is doubled with that equally semi-adequate authority figure Peter Quince.

The royal marriage is 'performed' in front of a seated court – plain wood seats, of course. In a few magical moments this sparseness is transformed by lights and music as the chairs are hauled into the air to create a forest. The heart lifts as high; the imagination whirls.

I have had many Dreams – some highly praised – inflicted on me. Only Peter Brook's celebrated white-box and Declan Donnellan's first Cheek by Jowl production match Havergal's superbly imagined voyage to the heart of the piece.

Puck/Philostrate: Malcolm Shields
Oberon/Theseus: Greg Powrie
Titania/Hippolyta: Helen Devon
Hermia: Patti Clare
Lysander: Ian Skewis
Demetrius: John Jack
Helena: Lesley Hart
Quince/Egeus: Derwent Watson
Bottom: John Kazek
Flute: Martin O'Connor
Snout: Des Hamilton
Snug: Stewart Porter

Director/Designer: Giles Havergal
Lighting: Gerry Jenkinson
Dance: Malcolm Shields
Music: Ricky Ross

2001-11-08 12:13:12