A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe

On an English summer evening (chilly and drizzly) a small group of Ertegun scholars gathered in front of the stage in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for a Midsummer Night’s Dream. We were told to expect a “weird, druggy, space-age Bollywood mash-up” (Lloyd Evans, the Spectator) from this first production under the Artistic Directorship of Emma Rice. Innovations of gender and sexuality worked brilliantly within the Shakespearean fabric, the showy set captivated, and for those who like farce and innuendo, there was plenty of fun to be had. There was certainly much laughter from those who were seated (or tall enough to see the stage), but with colour, acrobatics, music, dancing and flamboyant acting (whether you could see or not) it was a Shakespeare experience to remember.