66. Pocket Dream - Udderbelly

Poor Pocket Dream – I can’t envy any production that had to live up to the last Midsummer Night’s Dream that I saw, the 2008 RSC revival/production – which is still beating vividly in my mind as one of the best Shakespeare’s I’ve seen. On top of which the small cast had to deal with a poor audience turn out and the constant danger of being drowned out by the gathered merrymakers in the Udderbelly Garden outside. In the end, the production couldn’t match the magic, wonder and laughter of the RSC production but still had a lot of heart and I enjoyed it thoroughly anyhow.



I went to my first all-male Shakespeare last year in the form of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, but this was my first opportunity to catch Propeller, who have rather become the brand names of the form. I’m looking forward to catching their legendary Comedy of Errors and Richard III next month and hopefully their Henry V later in the year. This all male-approach provided, though, my main reservation about the production, I still have a few doubts about how well it works (though I’m more than willing to be convinced) – perhaps it is just that I’ve been spoiled by the performances of Alan B Richardson and Chris Finn in Iolanthe, both of whom blew me away – but here I was never quite convinced by the “female” performances. They felt more to me like portrayals of gay men, than of women. Which perhaps was a directorial choice and certainly fitted the production fine. But I just adore Shakespeare’s ladies, so felt a little robbed. For the record I felt exactly the same with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, so perhaps this will be just one of those things that don’t work for me.

Despite that though the rest of the production was exceptionally charming, with a very scrappy approach – costumes pulled out of a crate in the centre, costume changes happening on stage, a very simple, stripped back set with a hint of circus inspiration and a minimal use of lighting and affects. I particularly enjoyed the physical exuberance of the production and the use of music throughout – with “All I Have To Do Is Dream” popping up frequently with a slight Barbershop undertone and “Purple Haze” making an unexpected and truly excellent guest spot. There were some great performances with Vince Leigh as Oberon/Bottom and Tam Williams as Puck/Flute standing out for me – especially in their scenes as Pyramus and Thisbe which reminded me of one of my favourite versions of the play within the play by The Beatles (honest, 60s television was insane – thankfully evidence remains – follow the link).

In the end, I think the biggest shame was that the night I went there weren’t more children in the audience (the cast struggled to find two volunteers amongst the small crowd of adults – though the boy who came up to play Hippolyta was superb and seemed genuinely bereft to lose his wig at the end) – as I think it would have added energy and magic to the proceedings. I would also have been intrigued to see how children would have reacted as I think the production did a great job of making the play accessible and, more importantly for me, re-creatable. Anything that encourages children to be involved with theatre is a thing of utter joy.