Summer Smiles in St. Paul's

A Midsummer Night's DreamSt. Paul's Church Covent Garden

Iris Theatre

2nd July - 5th August

You may be thinking 'another summer, another outdoor version of A Midsummer Night's

Dream', but be not so sceptical, friend! Set in the wilds of St. Paul's Churchyard, this is an exuberant, joyous performance that makes excellent use of its unique location.

The USP is the churchyard which is used to imaginative effect, with the cast patiently asking the audience to move around the gardens for various scenes. Occasionally there were seats, but more often it was a matter of standing or sitting on the ground. That being said, a couple of older people in the audience were exceedingly well looked after, with ushers providing them with a folding chair at every location.

I attended with a group of friends, three of whom had never seen the play before. In fact, this play was a challenge between myself and Mr. Ticket Stubs

- having dragged him along to numerous woeful or incredibly challenging Shakespearean plays, we had an agreement: if he still didn't like Shakespeare after seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream, I would never take him to see ol' Billy ever again. So as you can appreciate, I had a lot on the line! I am pleased to say that Shakespeare has lived to see another day - Mr. Ticket Stubs was more than impressed! Let's not be snobs about it, we all know that Shakespeare is very hard to follow if you've never studied it before, so the fact that the newbies were able to follow with ease is a definite win. Not only that, but the delight of the children in the audience was priceless. One little girl sat with such a huge grin on her face the en

tire time that it was almost more charming than the play itself.

Iris Theatre's cast of (mostly) young actors work remarkably hard throughout, throwing themselves into the physicality of the roles and their fun becomes ours. They valiantly fight an ever-loudening crowd of buskers that operate outside the church, but some dialogue does get lost. However the actors make up for it with strong physical performances. While the presence of some over-acting was a little distracting, the performances were generally very good. A special mention goes to the four Athenians, particularly Lysander and Demetrius, whose commitment to their rivalry drew some of the best laughs of the night. Puck was similarly impressive, especially as he was dripping with sweat and quite bloodied-kneed by the end after throwing himself about in the dirt for the best part of the play.

In conclusion, this was an infectious and fun version of AMND that is perfect for the family, young and old. Although these young bones got more than a little sore kneeling in the dirt for one extended period of time, it was still a lovely way to enjoy the Summer that seems to, at last, have arrived.

4/5