Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Lewis Bray, Garry Cooper, Emma Curtis, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Cynthia Erivo, Michael Hawkins, Charlotte Hope, Dean Nolan, Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Tom Vary, Matt Whitchurch, Ozzie Yue.

One year on from the Everyman Theatre opening its bright, brand new interior to the people of Liverpool once more, throwing the wrapping of the impressive exterior and the doors being opened wide with a huge Merseyside smile, William Shakespeare returns to liven up the world and let the magic in the Everyman stage run over.

Of course, following on from the Gemma Bodinetz directorial masterpiece of Twelfth Night in 2014 is an almost Herculean task, any director might think it would be worth having a punt at taking on the Nemean Lion with a donkey strapped to his back, rather than go toe to toe with the play that defined the renaissance period of the new Everyman being opened. However, in Director Nick Bagnall, challenges are there to be met, and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the bar of inventiveness was equally matched and the whole evening was one of sheer and unbridled enjoyment.

In many respects this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream could easily be one of the most remarkable, one of the fully encompassing of all in the last forty years. Its staging was bold, creative, ingenious, the players at their heightened best and the use of mirrors giving a sense of the unexpected, the fragmented mind always looking back at itself and of reflected depth, to carry off the sense of allusion in some many ways and yet keep the play flowing is somewhat significant and astonishing.

Not only is the play of the highest standard but Dean Nolan surely should be seen as one of the most notable Bottoms to date. A performance not for the mewling kitten, Bottom should be played with exuberance, with brashness but with kind heart and with the confidence to be a true ass, but never once stepping into the realms of awkward insincerity, it is a part that captures the spirit of the play and deserves as much respect as Macbeth, Hamlet, Viola, Henry V, Antony, Cleopatra or Cordelia.

Dean Nolan takes on the part with a sense of the occasion, of overriding perhaps other conventional thought that Bottom, whilst a great joyful character, is a bumbling fool, a teaser for the audience to have light relief. Dean Nolan, with guidance from Nick Bagnall, brings Bottom back to the rightful place in the world of notable Shakespeare characters, perhaps arguably to the point where Shakespeare’s written words, “All the world’s a stage” speech in As You Like It means something more. The audience can see this plainly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all must play their part and even a Bottom can be a King in his own mind for one night.

With a great supporting cast, including Garry Cooper, Lewis Bray, fresh from a tremendous run at the Playhouse in his own play Cartoonopolis, and Cynthia Ervio as the mischievous Puck, Nick Bagnall’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the kind of play in which theatre goers should aspire to be part of, to be immersed into the dream state and be comforted in the scale of its ambition. A play of outstanding quality.

Ian D. Hall