As I walk into the Cambridge Arts Theatre to meet professional designer Lily Arnold who has been working on A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Marlowe Society, I am confronted by a pop-up Halfords tent. Student Phil Shipley and I grapple with it whilst Lily reads us the instructions on how to fold it up. When I ask what it’s for I’m told that Hermia takes it into the forest with her when she runs away from home. How sensible.

The word “realistic” isn’t one that is usually associated with the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but that is what this production team is hoping to achieve. It’s difficult for an audience to fully invest in fantasy, Lily tells me, so they have worked on making the characters believable and honest. The magic in the play comes from the fact that they are all only human, and yet have these extraordinary powers and undergo amazing transformations. “It’s almost the magic of everyday life… like a pop-up tent.”

The main thesis for this production sprang from the idea of setting it in a kind of “urban wasteland,” think the outskirts of London, and this has inspired the other design aspects of the play. It opens with the court scene depicted as a Canary Wharf-like corporate affair, but as the characters fall into the dream this disintegrates into a building site. Lily tells me that it was important for each group of characters to have their own unique space, giving them ownership of their environment. It’s about creating “a playground for the actors to live in.”The costumes have been kept contemporary, but in a playful way. They have experimented with everything from vintage rockabilly to tattoos and masks. The fairies are described as “modern-day gypsies” wearing tweeds and earthy fabrics, whilst the court officials are business-like in suits.

Having worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company Lily tells me that she finds the enthusiasm and willingness of the students here refreshing. She is impressed by how much work the students have put in, and Phil quickly agrees that the amount of preparation far exceeds any production he has done before. The Cambridge University Marlowe Society has alumni such as Ian McKellen, Sam Mendes and Peter Hall, and this may well be where the next generation of professionals is born. As such, the cast are keen to get to as close to a professional level as they can.

The actors have been working particularly hard on technique, says Phil. Director Kate Sagovsky has focused on the use of movement, and much of the comedy comes from a physical place. “It’s really silly,” says Lily, “but in a tangible way.” They have had fun in particular playing with the Mechanicals, trying to invent a feasible way in which a group of builders may decide, on the spur of the moment, to put on a play. Both descend into laughter as they recount a recent rehearsal.Like many student productions it will be clever and thought provoking (with maybe even a comment or two on society thrown in), but unlike many attempts at Shakespearean comedy, it may actually be very funny.