Richmond Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream at Kew Gardens
You'd be hard pressed to find a better setting for A Midsummer Night's Dream than the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew.
As you watch Hermia run off into the forest to elope with Lysander and join fairy queen Titania in the woods, the giant trees of Kew provide the perfect backdrop to the magic – a set already formed.
We entered via the Park's famous Victoria gate and were guided by fairy lights – apt – along the edge of the Palm House glasshouse and the Rose Garden and out into the woods.
Arriving early to feast like Bottom on cakes and ale, we soaked up the sunny beams of the moon as it rose above Kew and the sun set on the stage.
The stage, a raised wooden structure in the round, is set against several of Kew's giant heritage trees onto which lights are projected throughout the performance.
The adaptation modernises the original text in all the right places. Before the play starts the audience is warned not to film the show and to keep socially distanced, among other rules of the theatre.
There are references to popular culture like Four Weddings and a Funeral, and at one point Bottom dances heartily to a rendition of Zorba the Greek.
During the rehearsal of Pyramus and Thisbe, the famous play within a play, actors are told to stand apart so they don't catch covid.
I'm sure there was a nod to Kew Green in one of Titania's monologues, too…
It's fun, it's light, it's easy to follow, and it's full of laughs.
"An alfresco romp peppered with contemporary references" is the perfect analysis.
The setting has its quirks, of course. Noisy geese roamed the space comically and the occasional gust of wind fuzzed up the mics.
Although international travel is still somewhat restricted, Heathrow is certainly still in business and planes passed at fairly frequent intervals overhead.
But the actors were fantastic and did not flinch at any distractions. I suppose the slight distractions around us would have been nothing to the chaos that actors would have faced in Shakespeare's time, anyway.
Puck was a favourite among our troupe – at one stage completing four backflips in a row without seeming at all out of breath.
The Athens Players did go on a little at the end but the actors' energy and passion is unquestionable.
A truly unique and fun night out in a perfectly magical setting.
We'd highly recommend the show!
Kew Gardens is delighted to announce that the season has been extended until Sunday 5 Sept.
Find out more and how to book tickets on our events page here.
Thank you to Kew Gardens for inviting Nub News along.
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