"Lord, what fools these mortals be!” cries Puck, the impish sprite of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night's Dream, and what a fitting quote it is to describe this fantastically funny production by the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
Nestled in the lovely St Hilda’s garden, the stage was the rolling lawn and trees – a perfect set for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The sun was setting as the play began, with Hippolyta and Theseus playing croquet on the lawn.
Theseus and Hippolyta, the Duke of Athens and the Queen of the Amazons, are to marry shortly and a group of actors are preparing a play to perform at their wedding. Meanwhile, Hermia wants to marry Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena wants to marry Demetrius as well, but he is in love with Hermia. But mortals are not the only fools, and the Fairy King and Queen are also estranged in a battle over a mortal child. They all end up in the nearby wood outside Athens, where Puck and Oberon (the Fairy King) wreak havoc with a magical flower, which causes both Demetrius and Lysander to love Helena and the Fairy Queen Titania to fall in love with one of the actors (whom Puck has turned into an ass).
The cast is very funny, and because the audience is close to the stage, they were able to use all sorts of subtle facial expressions and gestures for comedic effect. Puck was particularly brilliant, impishly bouncing around the set and grinning wickedly as he got up to no good. The group of actors practising their play for the wedding were downright hilarious, and culminated with a side-splitting version of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, and a version of the Highland fling that has them all raising their kilts to the audience. Of particular note was the very camp Snout, with his elegant rendition of the wall and Flute, with his very masculine version of Thisbe.
As in many productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream there were strong sexual overtones, particularly amongst the fairies in their near-naked, body-painted state and in the relationship between Oberon and Puck, which was distinctly homoerotic. There was repeated use of a carrot throughout the play, which was slightly bizarre, though perhaps also meant to tie in with this theme.
OUDS have put together a simple and intimate production, which is carried by the strength of the comedic acting and energy of the cast. They will be performing between July 30th and August 3rd at St Hilda’s, after which they will head off to London and Japan for the rest of their tour.