Actual proper culture from me this week with some Shakespeare. Although to be fair, Conclave got a bunch of Golden Globe nominations this week so maybe it’s two weeks in a row.
The RSC are back at the Barbican this winter with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This had a run at Stratford earlier in the year and has transferred in and as you can see from the programme, the big name here is Matthew Baynton (of Ghosts fame) who is playing Bottom. When I started writing this, I thought this might be the first time I’ve seen Dream done professionally* but I had totally forgotten that I saw the Michael Grandage Company’s production with Sheridan Smith and David Williams in it a decade or so ago. This is much better than that one. Much.
This isn’t one of my favourite Shakespeare’s (that’s Twelfth Night) but this production is a bit like a minimalist fever dream – with 80s inspired costumes in a big black space where lights and ladders can appear and the actors at times seem to materialise from no where. Baynton and the mechanicals are genuinely funny and their final performance capped a riotous evening that seemed to go by in a flash.
It always feels like A Decision to go and see some Shakespeare – so long, such language, not always funny when its meant to be but this was an excellent choice for a wintery evening – and as I happened to be there on press night, I also spotted several of the other Ghosts stars in the audience (to be fair I mainly spotted them in the bar at the interval) to support their colleague. A very satisfactory night out.
*although technically it was the first Shakespeare I ever saw – because Class Six did it as their leavers play when I was in Class Five, but I don’t think that counts. In case you’re interested, I spent two years in Class six (village primary, only six classes for seven years of school when I was there) and we did Bugsy Malone – I was a dancer at Fat Sam’s, and Twelfth Night – I was a recorder player at the court of Duke Orsino. As you can tell acting was not my forte
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 
I’m glad this was a fun production. I enjoyed it each time that I’ve seen it. The best one was in Regent’s Park on a gorgeous August evening but that was 40 years ago now. I love going to the RSC at Stratford but we’ve got out of the habit lately and need to start going again.
We’re so close to Stratford (in relative terms) that we really should get there more often, but it’s a Saturday night job and that requires more planning than I can usually muster! But they’re doing Twelfth Night there now, which is my favourite so I really should make the effort…