“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
David Wootton in North London
★★★★☆
3 July 2026
A production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is the quintessential theatrical treat of a summer in London. However, having mounted almost 50 productions of the play in a 94-year history, it is hard for the venue to present a strikingly new interpretation. Nevertheless, in giving the innovative Atri Banerjee the opportunity to direct it this year, that difficulty has been overcome with apparent ease, and the result feels fresh, modern, and simultaneously delightful and disturbing.
Neil D’Souza (Snug & Egeus).
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
Taking an inclusive approach to casting that has become the norm, for example, at Shakespeare’s Globe, Banerjee assembles a wide range of talented performers, and manages to fuse them into a highly integrated ensemble. Accentuating the sonic elements of what is perhaps Shakespeare’s most musical play, he requires them to sing, dance, and play instruments in addition to acting, and they do so with facility and harmony. And then, in a surprising stroke of genius, he casts the highly engaging Deaf actor Nadeem Islam in the pivotal role of Bottom, and so unites sound, Sign, and an astonishing repertoire of visuals.
The sense of an ensemble is established from the outset, when the cast gathers on stage, summoned by the lines, “is all our company here?” and “this green plot shall be our stage”, not usually spoken until the second scene. They stand, facing the audience on steep wooden steps, redolent of the auditorium of an ancient Greek theatre, and suggestive of the play’s Athenian setting. They wear a stylized, often quirky take on modern fashion that, in its loose, flowing character and predominance of white, alludes to classical dress. (Naomi Dawson is responsible for the set, and Tomás Palmer for the costumes.)
The words, “this green plot” also appear high above the curtained backdrop. As Banerjee explains in an essay in the programme, the full phrase of which these words are part was the Open Air Theatre’s founding motto. In foregrounding the motto in this opening tableau, he acknowledges a long tradition while emphasizing the immediacy of people meeting to share a live theatrical occasion in a particular place and time.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
There is a swift move from stillness to action, as Theseus, Duke of Athens (Olivier Huband), fences, literally and figuratively, with his betrothed, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons (Jenny Rainsford), overseen by Philostrate, the Master of Revels (Georgia Bruce). They are soon disturbed by the besuited Egeus (Neil D’Souza), who complains that his daughter Hermia (Hiftu Quasem), has been “bewitched” by Lysander (Misia Butler), when he has already decided that she should marry Demetrius (Terique Jarrett), who, in turn, is loved by Hermia’s friend Helena (Mary Malone). When Theseus supports the right of the father, Lysander and Hermia decide to flee to his aunt, who lives beyond the Athenian woods, and beyond the jurisdiction of Theseus, and Demetrius and Helena follow.
These quarrelsome courtiers are replaced by a likeable group of workers who, despite their inexperience, hope to perform the play “Pyramus and Thisbe” for Theseus and Hippolyta in celebration of their marriage. Though ostensibly managed by Quince the carpenter (Harriet Gordon-Anderson), they are dominated by Bottom the weaver (Nadeem Islam), who exhibits extraordinary energy, dashing up and down the steps and supplementing his speeches with a wide repertoire of sound effects. Having decided on their roles, the workers agree to rehearse in the woods.
The woods and their magical inhabitants are revealed when the curtains open to show an inner room, wallpapered by a design of trees and occupied by a rock band. Speech soon turns to song in the mouths of the fairies, and a seductive, anarchic power is unleashed. Peaseblossom (Damien James) mainly plays guitar, Rori Hawthorn (Cobweb) violin, Moth (Rachel Barnes) cello, and Mustardseed (Amelia Gabriel) keyboard, though they are multi-talented, and there is some swapping of instruments and sharing of vocals. (Rachel Barnes is also the musical director, while the composer and musical arranger is Maimuna Memon and the sound designer Max Pappenheim.)
Huband and Rainsford play the fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, as well as Theseus and Hippolyta, as if one pair is the rock star alter ego of the other, and they make their transformation on stage by entering the wallpapered room and changing into new costumes. In a dysfunctional phase of their relationship, they argue over the possession of a “changeling boy” to dissonant musical backing.
They are accompanied by Oberon’s attendant Puck who (played by Bruce) seems, like them, an alter ego of an Athenian character. However, Puck is almost omnipresent in the play, and slips with such ease between its various realms that Philostrate may be just one of many assumed identities. In any event, Bruce gives a deliciously winning performance, and partners Huband perfectly. They are both given additional lines of dialogue, but deliver them with such a light and humorous touch that they almost appear to be adlibbing.
Indeed, much is made, in direction and performance, of the play’s many opportunities for verbal and visual comedy, and especially those involving the complexities of love. Having entered the woods, the young lovers and the workers become subjected to the influence of the fairies, and engage in unexpected amorous adventures, with hilarious consequences, at least for the audience.
Puck anoints the eyes of Lysander, and then Demetrius, with the juice of a magical flower, unintentionally leading them both to fall in love with Helena and reject Hermia. The ensuing discord is played with frenetic physicality, and at one point Helena leaps onto Demetrius’s back to escape Hermia’s wrath. While there is great chemistry between all four actors in these roles, Malone as Helena and Quasem as Hermia prove particularly distinctive.
Oberon also anoints the eyes of Titania, and Puck provides Bottom with a lurid blue ass’s head so that he can become her grotesque love object when she wakes. Islam makes the most of the chance to play the ass, trotting delicately across the stage and whinnying ecstatically when scratched by the fairies.
Eventually order is restored, and the humans return to Athens to celebrate a triple wedding and enjoy a performance of “Pyramus and Thisbe”. The success of a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream partly, or even largely, depends on the presentation of this play within a play, and fortunately Banerjee’s workers do not disappoint. And though this entertainment is extremely funny, the death of Pyramus (played by Islam’s Bottom) elicits a moment of moving silence that is hardly dispelled by his discovery by Thisbe (played by Issam Al Ghussain’s Flute).
In the middle of a park, and surrounded by trees, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is a very special space that fosters a creative microclimate. During the course of an evening performance, natural light is gradually replaced by artificial illumination (on this occasion designed by Joshua Pharo), while birdsong encourages a sense of peace. It is ideal as a setting for Shakespeare’s Dream, especially a production as successful as Banerjee’s. And while it opened just before Midsummer’s Eve, its press night coincided magically with the appearance of the Strawberry Moon. Paraphrasing the words of Quince, the moon certainly did shine on the night they played their play.
