“Away, you ethiope!” is one of those lines that invariably creates an awkward stir among modern audiences. Yet in this production it is one of the many instances in which the cast is self aware and at one with its role as a group of performers; Charlotte Quinney (Hermia) glances to the audience with a hiss and an eyebrow raised.  It is this frankness in dealing with the nature of theatre that allows Director Kate Sagovsky to move A Midsummer Night’s Dream so seamlessly onto a modern stage.

At first glance the set’s economy seems at odds with the deep, dark forest it represents. Sagovsky writes in her Notes that this is ‘our world’: nature and city both under construction, a contested space. This landscape is one which sets down lines between dream and reality, stage and audience, in order to explore the symmetry between the two. The set is a space much more than the sum of its various parts: bare scaffolding, an over-shadowing tree and demountable walls shamelessly moved about, built and rebuilt before the audience.

The production was punctuated by raucous laughter throughout, yet human puppetry and dance exploited the darker and more poignant aspects of a play that plays with people as they sleep, that contorts reality into a hazy imagining. Quinney, James Parris (Demetrius), Ellie Nunn (Helena) and Will Attenborough (Lysander) were intelligent, dynamic and hilarious. Thanks to some stunning direction and choreography their legs do ‘keep pace with their desires’ as they, along with Mateo Oxley (Oberon) and Harry Carr (Puck) most notably, climb with awe-inspiring grace around the stage and around each other. The acrobatic artifice is so smooth that it seems fitting before the centre-stage tree; it seems oddly natural.

The Pyramus (Alex Mackeith) and Thisbe (John Stamp-Simon) sub-plot takes centre stage toward the end of the play. Actors laughing at theatre is a dangerous move and one that can only be executed successfully by very brilliant performers; Mackeith and Stamp-Simon, along with the other mechanicals, were most certainly brilliant.

This was a rare production where stylized subtleties, technical brilliance and faultless acting came together in perfect synthesis. Everyone involved showed a refreshing command of the text, their craft and the sounds and spectacles that were created as result. It is a superlative production worthy of every star.