A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. June 7-15.

A compact and energetically athletic reading of the play by a small cast using what looks like every inch of  a towering ruin of a set. A doubling of Theseus and Hippolyta with Oberon and Titania (Richard Pyros and Imogen Sage) is pretty common but this production brings off an even tighter doubling. The audience commentary in Pyramus and Thisbe vanishes as a result but the Mechanicals’ play gets a tight and funny run. The lovers (Hermia - Ahunim Abebe, Helena - Isabel Burton, Demetrius - Mike Howlett, Lysander - Laurence Young) are a lively lot but seem more manipulated than usual. Stand outs in the cast are Elia Prince’s silver haired compelling Puck and Matt Ngaropo’s wistful and poetic Nick Bottom. 

Alanna Maclean