New production of Midsummer Night's Dream among the most enteraining Shakespeare production

Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge Theatre (London) production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream has to go down as one of the most entertaining, exciting, and imaginative productions of this play, in fact of any Shakespeare comedy, in decades (it’s only obvious point of comparison is the famous Peter Brook production). The Hytner/Bridge show, staged in what looks like a sports arena and performed on a set of highly mobile mini-stages (each the size of a boxing ring perhaps?) and marked by amazing acrobatics – Puck really does seem to live aloft – much like Cirque de Soleil meets Shakespeare. The ensemble cast, with some doubling roles, not only manages the sometimes complex dialog and staging – these are the typically well-versed in classics British actors – but also manages some rocking musical #s and some beautiful and complex dance moves as well. It’s obvious throughout that the audience – some of whom are drawn into the production in surprising ways  - is having a great time (I saw the production on YouTube, a two-day run – not sure if or when it will be available again on film/streaming), and the actors as well. You could not help but be caught up in this performance (which reminded M and me of a London production of a Mystery Play that we saw many years ago that drew the entire audience into the show, as if we were in a medieval village). But there’s more to the show than the pyrotechnics, acrobatics, poetics, slapstick humor, and the occasional anachronism, which always draws a laugh; Hytner has re-imagined (and re-assigned) some of the key plot elements to give the play a contemporary view of sexual desire; the show is not just about two couples gone awry but about a # of possible sexual match-ups happening in the woods outside of Athens (that is to say, anywhere). Hard to single out any one actor for special praise, but Hammed Animashaun plays Bottom for all he’s worth and David Moorst is an astonishingly agile Puck.