A Midsummer Night's Dream – review Jul 21st 2013, 17:30
St James, London
Twenty years ago, it wasn't hard to find lunchtime theatre. But while the Play, a Pie and a Pint seasons at Oran Mor in Glasgow have become a real creative force for new writing, in most places the lunch-break play has been squeezed out. But the new St James theatre is attempting to revive the tradition. Judging by the packed performance I attended, there's demand: these crowds can't just be choosing to consume Shakespeare with their sandwiches because the air-conditioned studio space is so deliciously cool.
Butterfly Theatre Company's cut-down version of Shakespeare's comedy may not be subtle, but it certainly doesn't make an ass of the play, and its sly masterstroke is the contemporary setting and a recognisable location. The royal residence where which the Duke and Hippolyta are getting hitched is clearly Buckingham Palace, and a forest outside Athens becomes Green Park. Even the eternal roadworks outside Victoria station get a look-in, with Bottom and his friends fitting in a spot of am-dram in between digging up the road.
The show is best when it is least cluttered, and the projected images are an unnecessary contrivance. The performances are also wildly uneven, but Hayley Cusick as Helena is terrific value as an unexpectedly earthy Mancunian lass who refuses to stand any nonsense, and the furious quarrel between her and Stacey Roberts's Hermia is handled with real comic aplomb. Paul Harnett's Bottom begins in low-key fashion, but turns into an enjoyable drama queen. At 50 minutes it may be no more than a theatrical snack, but it has plenty of high spirits, and I don't just mean the fairy kind. If the increasingly essential St James theatre demonstrates a mite more ambition and gives audience a greater range of work, lunchtime theatre may once again thrive.
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Rating: 3/5
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