Review: Propeller – ‘Pocket Dream’

Propeller’s Pocket Dream takes A Midsummer Night’s Dream and condenses the text into an hour long version, intended as a means of drawing young audiences to Shakespeare. As an English student, I had my worries about this; could the integrity of the play be maintained through such an approach? Would elements be, for want of a better word, ‘dumbed down’ in order to be accessible to the target audience? As it turned out, my doubts were entirely unfounded. Despite an opening prologue written in contemporary style, and a moment worthy of minor cringe in which one of the characters labelled the others amateurs and called for a taxi (but hey, it got the biggest laugh!). Shakespeare’s original language is retained in all its richness. It was hard to spend time ruminating over what had been cut when what was focused on was handled with such aplomb.

it is the language of the piece which springs predominantly to life

In many ways, despite the stripping of the text to its essential core, the production feels like an evocation of how the play must have existed in its original form, or as close as can be achieved in modern day. In the quest to find new ways of approaching Shakespeare, one often gets the sense that certain directors bury their productions under the weight of innovative new set design which serves no purpose other than an attempt to modernise. Pocket Dream eschews this entirely; by stripping the set to a bare minimum (it essentially consists of some clothing racks, sandbags and seats scattered on a small portion of the stage) it is the language of the piece which springs predominantly to life, and specifically, just how funny this play can be in the right hands.

This piece in particular is marked by its physicality; cutting down the text to the basics gives it an intrinsic sense of pace that comes through in the performance. The cast double up in multiple roles, meaning there’s constantly somebody running on and off stage to get changed at lightning speed, and in the argument between Helena (Matthew McPherson) and Hermia (Max Hutchinson), characters are dragged across the ground by their ankles, hit in the face with bags of flour, and lifted up into the air. It’s slapstick, but
not juvenile; the text itself suggests this physical comedy, and it is this aspect of the production which really succeeds in inducing laughter. The audience was repeatedly in hysterics, rather detracting from the assertion that Shakespeare is too complex for children to understand given that the young people seemed to be finding it every bit as hilarious. Propeller certainly succeeded in its aim of accessibility for all ages.

These are just men who happen to be playing female roles

Propeller itself is an all-male company, something I hadn’t seen in my own experience of watching Shakespeare before, and was fascinated to observe, given that it accurately reflects the casting of solely men in the writer’s own time. Hutchinson and McPherson play the female roles in a manner which is chiefly based on character rather than spoof. It would be all too easy to simply gain humour from effusing a performance with high camp and focus solely on the ‘man in women’s clothing’ aspect, but this never feels like a mockery of femininity. These are just men who happen to be playing female roles, and pulling it off brilliantly; they’re the standout (and funniest) performances, along with Chris Miles as a sublimely ridiculous Bottom. Ultimately the entire cast more than rises to the challenge, infusing the production with a vitality that would not feel out of place on the stage at The Globe.

This is a must see for a short, sweet and hilarious slice of the Bard; if you’re already a Shakespeare fan, it’s a superb rendition of the text and if you’re not, this is the perfect entry point to his work. Get down to the Belgrade ASAP!