BY ALICE FLETCHER (who gave it 5 stars!)

Children and Shakespeare aren’t usually the best of friends. But with Shakespeare 4 Kidz they most certainly are. I saw S4K’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when it was at the Dorking Halls and again at Dartford on Friday morning and the entire audience went wild for the show.

Yes, it tells the whole story – but not quite as the Bard intended! This very modern take adds music and dance plus an adorably mischievous Puck (Noel Andrew Harron) who’s as camp and Christmas and has everyone in hysterics over his antics. If there is any danger of the audience getting confused by this complicated romantic romp of a comedy, Puck is always there to make sure everyone knows what is going on. His make-up is a work of art too. Richard Munday and Emily Jordan are a delight as the royals: first as Duke Theseus and his regal bride Hippolyta and then as argumentative fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania.

The play-within-a-play in which Bottom and his workmen friends perform for the royal wedding is always a highlight and this production is no different. Bottom (Sean Luckham) milks every ounce of humour from Pyramus’s prolonged death throes but my favourite was Ben Goodridge’s sweet Snug/Lion, anxious to assure spectators not to be frightened as he wasn’t really a lion!

Don’t make the mistake of thinking S4k dumb down Shakespeare. They are doing Bard novices a huge favour by making him easy to understand in the hope they will go on to enjoy the plays in their original form. This Dream makes for a fun-filled couple of hours and promises plenty of laughter – and that’s no bad thing.