Return to the forest this summer – a dream world of flying fairies, contagious fogs and moonlight revels. The seating is wrapped around the action while the immersive tickets allow the story to be followed on foot.
Following its critically-acclaimed run in 2019, the Bridge Theatre’s five-star production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream returns for a limited run.
Rules of gravity are forgotten here. Led by David Moorst’s spiky, spidery Puck, who reclaims his role from the original production, the disco-ready fairies barely touch the ground, gambolling instead across bedframes and dangling effortlessly from loops of aerial silks. Their astonishing acrobatics have echoes of the 1970 Peter Brook production of this play, albeit with more brazenly bisexual energy, which sweeps over the show like confetti. In the lovers’ clamorous scene of misunderstandings, Puck amuses himself by floating above them, swivelling the direction of their affections like spinning tops.
The production loses some momentum in the scenes with the lovers, who are pleasant but largely two-dimensional. But the Rude Mechanicals, led by Felicity Montagu’s Mistress Quince as a long-suffering adult education facilitator, present a truly uproarious staging of Pyramus and Thisbe that’s also touching in its dedication to teamwork, however chaotic. Emmanuel Akwafo is charming as Bottom, dressed in a yellow boilersuit, who is both innocent and deeply serious about his art (“It’s in the round!” he hisses at the Wall). It’s a play in which the whimsical and the serious intertwine and joy prevails. Topped off with a finale filled with a group dance and giant moon-like beach balls floating over the pit, it’s the best party of the summer.
| 1826 | Broadway |
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| 1903 | Broadway |
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| 1971 | Broadway |
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| 1975 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1977 | Off-Broadway |
Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway |
| 1981 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1982 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1987 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1991 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1994 | Off-Broadway |
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| 1996 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2007 | Off-Broadway |
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| 2012 | Off-Broadway |
Classic Stage Company Production Off-Broadway |
| 2012 | West End |
Open Air Theater Production West End |
| 2013 | West End |
Michael Grandage Company Production West End |
| 2013 | Off-Broadway |
Theater for a New Audience Production Off-Broadway |
| 2015 | Off-Broadway |
Pearl Theatre Company Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2017 | Off-Broadway |
Shakespeare in the Park Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2019 | Off-Broadway |
Original Immersive Production Off-Broadway |
| 2020 | Off-Broadway |
Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
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