You don’t necessarily expect a take on a A Midsummer Night’s Dream to have Pete Quince’s troupe cutting cocaine with credit cards but that’s far from the biggest change to this adaptation. Playing here now as more tragedy than comedy, Headlong adapted A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its debut in the candlelight Wanamaker.
Billed as a darker, more tragic version, there are still some laughs kept, perhaps some of them now more nervous laughs. There’s an undercurrent of sex and violence running throughout, sometimes uncomfortably combined. The lovers’ fallings-out in the woods, even when driven by Puck’s interference, move far away from the chaotic mischief and towards barely disguised emotional and physical abuse, playing with a hard edge to them.
Sergo Vares’ Puck carries an air of male violence throughout, a discomforting figure. This Puck is not mischievous and delights in intimidation, including towards the audience. Vares does well, there is no doubting his control and his movement – there are intriguing hints buried deeply of him chafing at Oberon’s orders – but while playing a distinctive and memorable Puck, it is somewhat one note, held back by the productions focus on menace.
Bottom is another character with substantial changes, he’s more rounded, less of a bumbling comedic character and Danny Kirrane brings a sense of dignity often lacking. There are few moments where we laugh at Bottom, if anything from the offset we are set up to feel for him. This is really amplified in one of the moments that works really well: Hedydd Dylan as Titania and Bottom’s connection lasting after their bewitching is removed and you deeply feel Titania’s care for Bottom even when he is restored back to his normal human form and life. It’s a moment of almost passion in a play that seems quite passionless, quite cold. A midwinter night’s dream but with a little thaw in the frost and a glimpse of the missing emotion, to give the audience a little bit of warmth.
The chill is reinforced by designer Max Johns who created a world defined by a dark and sterile – cold – white set, initially a dining room, those are the only furniture aside from a piano, there are no woods, no set changes, just the cold and the white. There is a live band, led by musical director Richie Hart with music composed by Nicola T Chang which does sometimes suggest that weird, mischievous fairy world, but also a use of modern music featuring the cast singing Billie Eilish, Tears for Fears and Robbie Williams among others, these are slow and sorrowful with some exuberance in Williams’ Angels literally slapped down. The chill continues.
There is no question that Headlong with director Holly Race Roughan and co-director Naeem Hayat have a very specific vision set out but the problem is that vision is so determinedly bleak leaves little space for the magic, humour, or charm that has made A Midsummer Night’s Dream endure. Drastic changes to the ending bring a round of violence and the white stage turns red, the Puck extending a hand to the audience feels like one final malevolent threat to us all.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays until 30th January 2026, https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/a-midsummer-nights-dream/
Reviewer: Dave Smith
Reviewed: 28th November 2025
North West End UK Rating: