“Rock the ground,” declares a red neon sign high above the Globe stage where the new artistic director, Emma Rice, makes her debut with a revival of one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays.
The Globe certainly rocks with laughter in an irreverent evening in which the jokes come fast and furious, and it may rock with shock at the way Rice mashes up the Elizabethan with the modern and Shakespeare’s text with a touch of David Bowie, George Formby and some original songs from composer Stu Baker, a Kneehigh favourite. No wonder the evening extends to almost three hours.
Rice, whose only previous encounter with Shakespeare was a production of Cymbeline for the Royal Shakespeare Company, makes no claims to be a Shakespeare specialist and has stated her belief that too often in this country Shakespeare’s plays are treated like a kind of cultural medicine that are supposed to do you good. Towards the end she even inserts a tongue-in-cheek line alluding to British theatre’s obsession with text.
Purists may argue that she overfills the sugar spoon in her determination to make the medicine go down. And the relentless jokiness does detract from the comic climax in which the rude mechanicals – played as a gaggle of Globe stewards and cleaners, led by the redoubtable Rita Quince (Lucy Thackeray), with Bankside Health and Safety officer, Nick Bottom (Ewan Wardrop) trying desperately and failing to be an alpha male in the all-female crew – perform Pyramus and Thisbe. It seems flat after the strenuous comedy that has come before.
Rice’s most potentially contentious change, which sees Helena becoming Helenus, yearning desperately after Demetrius, who sees marriage to Hermia as the best way to secure his place in society, works beautifully. That has a lot to do with the unaffected directness of Ankur Bahl’s poignant performance as Helenus. The scene in which the quartet of lovers argue in the forest – Börkur Jónsson’s design offers a barrage of white-balloon blossoms atop fragile green stems – is a pleasure, with the gay best friend relationship between Helenus and Anjana Vasan’s delightful Hermia turning sour.
Puck’s observation: “Lord, what fools these mortals be,” has seldom seemed truer, but it applies equally to the inhabitants of the fairy world. Katy Owen’s distinctive, hyperactive Puck, decked out in devil’s ears, is desperate for affection from Zubin Varla’s cold-hearted Oberon. As she falls head over heels for Bottom, Meow Meow’s Titania increasingly loses her clothes, her inhibitions and her dignity. It’s nicely done.
The production understands the irrational power of Eros, but it never fully taps into any sense of the enchanted and uncanny. Even Puck’s final speech is unnecessarily undercut with comic business. For the first production in what has been dubbed the Wonder Season, this lacks a genuine sense of wonder and magic. There are times when, for all its exuberant gleefulness and merry laughter, it seems a tad charmless. Less could be more.
It’s a production likely to mature in emotional depth. For now, it is an entertaining and rowdy night out in which Rice demonstrates that she understands the dynamic of the Globe and the groundlings demonstrate their willingness to go with her on a journey. It may not be the dreamiest Dream, but it could be the start of a great love affair.
- At Shakespeare’s Globe, London, until 11 September. Box office: 020 7401 9919.
