A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Chichester Festival Theatre
until Saturday 17th October 2026
As the Bard of Avon wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth”. And it certainly doesn’t in Chichester Festival Theatre’s (CFT) current production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, the undoubted smoothness of the direction and slick stage management, make this version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy a delight from start to finish.
Replacing the original setting of Athens and its surrounding forests with Chichester and the South Downs, and fast-forwarding 400 years to the 1990s, makes the complex story more manageable. It’s easier to accept weird dreams at an illegal drug-fuelled rave in Sussex, than in a whimsical fairy forest in Greece. This adaptation of time and place allows the set designers to include a local MP’s office and a telephone booth covered in graffiti to advance the plot. Music, dance and costumes from the 1990s enhance the modern context, and a same-sex relationship reflects contemporary times. The actors, several of whom are newcomers, portray the characters convincingly.
Originally written in the 1590s, the script of Shakespeare’s play is rather wordy by today’s standards. But the talented cast uses clever devices to keep the audience engaged. No more than a few lines go by between references to the 1990s, or to the local area, or comical ribbing between the characters, or amusing use of the voice, or gentle audience participation, or slapstick comedy, ensuring that the audience remains engrossed and amused by the tangled love interests.
Actually, Shakespeare’s several subplots are rather tangled, too. There is a marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta. The lead-up to this marriage is interrupted by the refusal of Hermia to marry her father’s choice, Demetrius, because she is in love with Lysander. But Demetrius has an ardent admirer in Hermia’s best friend, Helena. These four characters attend the rave, during which they become unwittingly involved in a quarrel between the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, whose servant, Puck, mistakenly applies magic potion to the wrong people, with entertaining results. Meanwhile, a group of amateur dramatists practise the play they will perform at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Their lack of acting skills results in lots of hilarious farce, both during rehearsals and in their final performance. The wedding ceremony brings everyone together, with characters awakening from their midsummer night’s dreams.
All these storylines may be difficult to follow at times, but you are unlikely to fall asleep yourself during this dynamic performance. You might like to read a synopsis of Shakespeare’s play before the show in order to appreciate all the action, but I highly recommend CFT’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to anyone who is interested in seeing Shakespeare and/or 1990s culture in a new light, as well as those desiring a laugh-out-loud theatre experience. The final performance will be on Saturday 17th October.
Reviewer: Alison Wood and Malcolm Kerr
Photo: Manuel Harlen