Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Nel Crouch
Shakespeare loved a travelling player so he would certainly appreciate the efforts of touring company The Handlebards who have cycled thousands of miles on their bicycles for 10 years to bring Shakespeare’s plays to open-air venues. An outdoor version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be a crowded marketplace, certainly in June, but Nel Crouch’s family-friendly production slims the text to a neat two hours including interval and plays up the anarchic fun.
The Handlebards’ style is certainly distinctive, taking place on their own stage with a cast of just four actors playing all of the roles, sometimes more than one in the same scene. Dresses, jackets and sometimes even just a wig and glasses become their alter egos as the energetic company – George Attwell Gerhards, Alex Crook, Meredith Lewis and Jenny Smith – double and triple up their parts while still bringing Shakespeare’s fairies, lovers and mechanicals to life.
Performed in the calm surroundings of Charterhouse Square, one of the earlier stops on the tour, this version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is hugely entertaining. While Shakespeare’s text is the backbone of the show, there are plenty of contemporary asides, additions and enhancements that are very much in the spirit of the play with extra silliness and farcical exaggeration that blends visual and physical comedy, pitching different jokes to the child and adult audience.
Crouch’s approach focuses on the comedic details including a clever gender-swapped Oberon and Titania, the former played by Lewis as a 70s macho man with stick-on moustache and gold medallion. The fairy Queen’s attendants meanwhile are glittery French-accented flunkies who throw in a few GCSE phrases, while the final performance of The Mechanicals is pure Legz Akimbo from The League of Gentlemen. With wistful songs created from Shakespeare’s fairy speeches as well as a couple borrowed from My Fair Lady and Les Miserables, the is a lot going on but it goes on consistently, and two hours race by.
The presentation of the lovers’ confrontation proves a particular highpoint in the second part of the show as both Lysander (Crook) and Demetrius (Attwell Gerhards) believe they are in love with Helena (Lewis) much to the annoyance of Hermia (Smith). It leads to parallel physical fights, slow motion slaps and lots of scrappy acrobatics that brings a well-worn scene alive, helped by streamlining the activities in the Athenian woods without losing the sense of the play.
The Handlebards have also given plenty of thought to audience interaction; sit too near the front and you may find your wine or picnic commandeered temporarily by the performers, while the company also run through and around the audience several times, stopping to interact with viewers and even casting one of them in the show. It’s a welcoming atmosphere and Crouch manages the different devices and techniques well, embracing the necessarily haphazard nature of the production with limited cast members, a bag of costumes and a rudimentary set to create some theatre magic in Charterhouse Square.
Reviewed on 3 June and continues to tour
