You know it’s officially summer in Britain when the Shakespeare comedies come out to play.*

Last night, I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Rugby Theatre, part of the RSC’s Open Stages, directed by Robert Sloan. It’s a show I know very well, and have seen many times. Perhaps too many times. The last being several years ago, however, I decided it was time to give it a fresh whirl, and it was nice to find that it was indeed fresh.

Quickly, for those of you who don’t know and are interested, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comic farce about mistaken identity, rich in poetry and wide in scope. In the past, directors have ‘used’ the play as a way to talk about feminism, sexuality, environmentalism or just as plain old farcical fun. It is probably in the top three Shakespeare plays produced (the others, at a guess, being Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet). The Wedding March was written for it, originally. Yup, that Wedding March. If you really don’t know the play, look it up. It’s usually good for a laugh.

As I said, I’ve seen a lot of different interpretations of AMND, from the famous to the unsung, but the one constant through them all had been an energetic, uncontrollable Puck; always a sprite of speed and mischief, often played by a woman. I have to admit, this has often irked me slightly – Puck is referred to in the script as “goblin” and “hobgoblin” on more than one occasion, and I have always wanted to see a more cumbersome Puck, a Puck who was dangerous in a different way. After all, the word “fairy” has not always conjured images of wisps and wings and pretty things.

So when Matthew Duckett’s Puck “halted”** across the stage at the opening of the show, somewhere between Richard III and a steampunk David Bowie, I was duly excited. In heavy boots and leather jacket, with face in putrid green, Duckett was the Puck I’ve been waiting to see. He felt weighty and dangerous, and was clearly more than a little unhinged. He was also distinctly not-free, but was under Oberon’s power entirely; often his king would drag him around by force. Duckett was by far one of the strongest members of the cast, and showed a mastery and understanding of the text that sometimes (sadly) seemed lacking elsewhere in the production.

This brings me on to the direction of the piece. Sloan is clearly a very talented physical director, capable of creating and executing a vision well. His lens for the show seemed to be imprisonment at the hands of irresistible power, whether that be magic or military force. The aesthetic was a steampunk urban jungle, with a set that was effective and easy to modify by the cast. The trees of the forest where the majority of the action took place were represented by lines of washing, which was at once easily acceptable and distinguishable. The costume design was astonishingly good. The stage was the deepest I have ever seen it be at Rugby Theatre, with a long apron swallowing much of the first three rows of auditorium. Despite this, it never felt too big – I was convinced that all of the space created was not only used, but required, which is great credit to the director. Indeed, one of the highlights of the show was a sequence at the beginning of the second half that used the entire space. It started as an amusing lounge singer lip-sync performance from Puck, and slowly all the unsolved threads of the plot were shown to us, while he grinned on manically. The resulting tableau was impressive, and well earned the applause it was given.

All the physical elements were slick, well-rehearsed and striking. Where I felt the direction fell a little short was in its attention to the text itself. There were moments where I felt that the cast perhaps missed out on giving the best performances they could give because they required more guidance with the Shakespeare itself. There were notable exceptions, Puck and the Mechanicals being among them, but often the jokes that Shakespeare had written were overlooked for the sake of physical slapstick. I don’t dislike slapstick – it would just have been nice to have had both, and every cast member seemed up to the task at times. For example, there are many productions I have seen that have made more of the sexual innuendoes between Lysander and Hermia. At first, I thought Sloan might be steering clear of this for the sake of the age of the actors (who were quite young), but later, in a very funny sequence, they were literally tearing each other’s clothes off. The incongruity smacks a little of oversight. Furthermore, the beautiful passages of poetry in the text, especially two of Oberon’s famous speeches, were given no texture or subtlety. The greatest asset of any Shakespeare play is certainly not its plot, but its poetry, and if you’re going to leave that unharnessed, I would question why you would want to direct a show like AMND. The language was often rushed in favour of something else, and while we all appreciated the fast running time, I still feel that these passages deserve some modulation.

Having said that, I still had a very good time at this show. They say ‘never work with animals or children’ , but this production laughed in the face of the adage. Indeed, the live dog on stage seemed to be a representation of the saying within the show-within-a-show, to the mirth of everyone in the theatre. It yapped through Pyramus’ speech and death, and the actors merely used it to their advantage – it is meant to be a train-wreck, after all. The final act was nothing but delightful, and really gave the Mechanicals (that is, Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snug and Starveling) a chance to shine, which they grasped with both hands. They were a talented bunch.

All in all, I’d say go and see it – especially if Shakespeare is not normally your thing. You’ll have to hurry though – I hear the run is almost sold out.

Entertainment – 7 Certainly a fresh look at the play. Worth watching.

Effort – 9 Again, depends if you’re local, but the run finishes at a reasonable 10pm, and there’s plenty to laugh at even if you’re not ‘into Shakespeare’.

Expense – 7 While £12 isn’t bad as it is, if you rock up on the door, you might get a shot at £5 cheap seats on the balcony. You don’t miss much, but the risk is that they’re very limited.

Endurance – 6 It’s a blog about Procrastination, people. 3 hours  is a ‘6’.

EQUALS – 7.25 If you’re in Warwickshire, you could do worse than to look this show up. I wish the cast and crew the best of luck with the rest of the run.

* Pun not intended.

** It means limped.