RSC A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Barbican

Last Updated on October 13, 2025

Enchanting fun-packed theatre at Christmas

5.0 out of 5.0 stars

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, often associated with high summer, fits comfortably into the Christmas pantomime’s shoes. Whimsical costumes, many jokes, lovable personalities, and buffoonery; much like panto, there’s a wedding at the end. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most familiar plays, transferring from a recent run at Stratford-Upon-Avon. The RSC’s production, directed by Eleanor Rhodes (Boudica, Shakespeare’s Globe), is at the Barbican until mid-January and is a gift of a not-panto Christmas theatre choice that will appeal to stalwart and infrequent theatre audiences.  

The simple black stage decorated with two hundred paper lampshades is extraordinarily effective. The spheres, mixed in size, lower to create the mystical forest. The colours of these globes change, accompanied by lightning sparking like neurons through a sleeping brain. An audio-described version delivered live by cast members from the wings will enhance the performance for partially sighted audiences.   

A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s playscript has a long cast list and multiple plots. Whereas other Shakespeare comedies such as Twelfth Night have characters dressing up and changing gender, the ‘Dream relies upon magic. Those anointed with rare purple flower tinctures of “love juice” upon their eyelids during sleep, will, upon waking, immediately – and inconveniently – fall in love with whoever they see first. It’s deliberately silly and humorous. Shakespeare also sends himself up with the dafter still play-within-the-play that mocks Romeo and Juliet (written around the same time), with similar themes concerning forbidden love thwarted by power.  

Meeting our quartet of Athenian lovers onstage, you will not mistake blonde, Doc Marten-booted Hermia (Dawn Sievewright, Pinocchio) for elegant, dark Helena (Boadicea Ricketts, The Merry Wives of Windsor). Nor barn-jacketed Demetrius (Nicholas Armfield, Operation Epsilon) for cockney geezer Lysander (Ryan Hutton, Only Fools and Horses the Musical). Things are also simplified by Oberon/Theseus (Andrew Richardson, Uncle Vanya) and Titania/Hippolyta (Sirine Saba, BBC’s Doctor Who), presented as double contrasting roles. So different were these, I didn’t realise until afterwards that both actors were playing two roles. 

Theseus is less a tyrant than a bumbling minor royal. A Tim-nice-but-dim wooing Hippolyta’s prim Jackie Kennedy with a beehive bride. In the fairy world, Titania has raven hair flowing as wildly as her Studio 54 fuchsia jumpsuit, whilst Oberon’s face make-up and gold braided Hussar jacket evoke the 1980s’ New Romantics at the Blitz Club. Costumes by Lucy Osborne are colourfully eye-catching but never gaudy; Bottom sports tangerine socks, a shirt and tie beneath his navy pinstripe suit, and Francis Flute flashes scarlet knickers beneath his turquoise satin dress. Snug, as Lion (Laurie Jamieson, The Great Gatsby), dons teddy fleece mustard Y-fronts. 

Emphatic movements (choreographed by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster) add much to the comedic effect, from boisterous horseplay between Lysander and Demetrius to the gracefully controlled gangliness of Bottom’s never-ending limbs. Comedy props employed include a Quadrophrenia-lamped tricycle with a clown’s hooter and on-stage consumption of bananas. Bananas are never not funny. 

Most of the main cast gets a moment to shine; the biggest laughs of all are saved for the final act. Rita, not Peter, Quince (Helen Monks, The Upstart Crow) does a turn delivering a Beastie Boys-style rap at the synthesiser; Snout (Emily Cundick, As You Like It) makes much of earnestly parading her sandwich board “wall” enabling plenty of innuendo about holes in walls.

Stand-out performances of the night come from Puck and Bottom. Bottom (Mathew Baynton, BBC’s Ghosts, Wonka movie) is a joyous jumping bean of enthusiasm who immediately delights with or without his twitching donkey ears and melancholic hee-haws.  

Puck (Katherine Pearce, BBC’s Waterloo Road) brings cheeky mischief and energetic physical comedy, a Buttons/Dandini-type figure with baggy jodhpurs and blue hair facilitating the magical dynamic intrinsic to the plot.

Music is composed by Will Gregory, one half of Goldfrapp, lending an upbeat pop feel to the musical style. Lighting is by Matt Daw (Dear Evan Hansen), which, beyond the disco ball lampshades, shines Pulp-style Common People squares all over the final act’s dancefloor, where everyone bops away at the triple wedding reception led by Theseus and Hippolyta. 

It’s quite a party – in contrast with the DVD I had watched in preparation. The dystopian BBC version by Russell T Davies (Dr Who), purchased to support my son’s English curriculum, was star-studded but grim in comparison. For a cheerier introduction to Shakespeare, RSC has £10 tickets to A Midsummer Night’s Dream available for 14-25s supported by TikTok. This RSC partnership with TikTok says much about the enduring relevance of Shakespeare to younger audiences. 

You don’t need to be studying English Literature to enjoy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, nor to delight in this RSC production cramming endless funny bits into the classic lines and soliloquies. This is a vibrant show that audiences will love as much with their eyes as their minds. Exhilarating and luminous, you’ll be delighted you left the house in midwinter to see it.  

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs until 18 Jan 2025.