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Shakespeare 4 Kidz: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – On Tour

Writer: William Shakespeare & Julian Chenery
Book/Lyrics: Julian Chenery
Music/Lyrics: Matt Gimblett
Director: Joseph Fowler & Julian Chenery
Reviewer: John Roberts

The Public Reviews Rating: *** THREE STARS

Shakespeare has never been a playwright that is easy to understand and credit must be given to Shakespeare 4 Kidz in making The Bard’s tales accessible to a whole new generation of theatre goers, and judging from the reaction of the youngsters watching they were delighted, the laughter never stopped!

This interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Julian Chenery cleverly weaves modern and Shakespearian prose in a way that isn’t daunting or scary for those approaching the text for the first time. The story is helped by an enigmatic Alan Carr-Esq Puck played with verve and delightful dexterity by Noel Andrew Harron; who reminds the audience throughout of what is happening and taking place.

The production is also helped with the addition of many original songs, which are witty and delivered well with some stunning harmonies by the strong ensemble…However they do become repetitive and at times are rather superfluous making this production run at just over 2 hours, a bit too long for its target audience and one that could easily be rectified to make this a much snappier 75minute production.

Fowler keeps the energy of his production as upbeat as possible almost more akin to Pantomime than a traditional telling of the story and this works fine for the majority, however one does question whether it needs to be so outrageously silly, and questions what exactly about the original play a ten year old would remember if questioned about it a week later.

Ben Goodrigde gives a comic Master-Class with his delightful turn as Snug the Joiner played as a strong West Country simpleton, whilst the lovers Luke Glover (Lysander), Harry Smith (Demetrius), Clare Reilly (Helena) and Harriet Dobby (Hermia) Compliment each other well with their comical physical castings. Sean Luckham is a lovable Bottom but a lack of variation in his delivery started to become quite draining on the ears, but the scene stealer of the night goes to Richard Foster King and his rubber face expressions in his delivery of Francis Flute and later as Thisbe in the Mechanicals play.

Overall this is an enjoyable production and a nice introduction to the works of Shakespeare, however one still feels that teachers and children alike would benefit more from watching the delightful and much shorter Animated Shakespeare Series by the BBC in the comforts of their own classroom.

Reviewed at The Palace Theatre in Manchester on the 28th September – the production is currently on tour and for information on dates and venues: please click here