A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Groundlings Theatre Company, Portsmouth New Theatre Royal, Friday 3 July

MND was the first Shakespeare play we were introduced to at school and I hadn't knowingly returned to it since. It's possible that not everything that is by Shakespeare is bound to be wonderful- Love's Labour's Lost at The Globe a couple of years ago was little short of torture- but it can also be to do with the production. I have a feeling that any Hamlet, however badly done, is likely to be better than Shakespeare comedy not delivered convincingly.
But it might be a personal thing and only my problem. This performance was rapturously received, possibly because local AmDram like this is supported by friends and family of those that are in it. Most of the poetry readings I've appeared in have had an audience that consisted of the other poets that were reading and their friends and mine, so it's a bit like a mutual support group.
That is not to say that the Groundlings' performance was without merit. It was choreographed with imagination and sustained energy and the leading parts were properly realized. It sometimes suggested it might achieve the necessary magical feeling. But, on the other hand, if you don't personally know the bloke dressed up as a woman in a bad blonde wig, then his female impersonation can stop being hilarious quite quickly. And it began to apply to the whole production that it was a bit screechy and depended too much on dashing about.
I'm sure there were stars in the making among the cast should they choose to pursue acting as a discipline in the future but, there would be no point in reviewing anything if one simply delivered nice platitudes to everything one sees, and quite honestly, this was too ambitious for the talent available and no amount of costume, make up and movement was going to disguise something of a hole in the middle of it. I don't think it was entirely Shakespeare's fault.