A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Lowry - 30/10/07 by James Ellaby

Shakespeare's plays have been performed for centuries and in all kinds of different ways, but not many adaptations that have been brought to British stages have been quite so different as this version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tim Supple. Commissioned by the British Council in India, it combines the skills of actors, dancers, martial arts experts, musicians and street acrobats from across India and Sri Lanka.

This very multi-ethnic approach also applies to Shakespeare's dialogue, which is delivered in English as well as no less than SEVEN different Indian languages. The actors flit between these languages throughout the performance, which is bewildering at first as there are no surtitles to explain what is being said, so English audiences mostly won't have a clue. Some of the Indian dialogue is so hypnotic that you often don't notice that they have slipped back into English and you should be paying attention to try and grasp onto where the story is up to.

Of course, if you know A Midsummer Night's Dream off by heart, you should be able to follow things from the action alone, though the opening scene, which is mostly performed in Indian languages doesn't particularly help you ease into the plot. Despite all the changes, this production does stay very close to Shakespeare's tale, keeping the setting in Athens and telling the tangled stories of Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, Bottom, Oberon, Titania and of course Puck, and as things progress, it becomes easier and easier to understand what's happening, even when it's not in English.

This is mostly down to the awesome production of it. With live Indian music performed on stage throughout, colourful costumes and a stage set that quite literally bursts into life with the arrival of the fairies, as the story moves along, the play becomes more and more physically adventurous. A scene where Puck torments the wayward Athenian lovers with a tangled web of string is delightful and very funny as well as being a little heavy on symbolism, and Ajay Kumar is excellently impish in the role.

All of the cast are very good in a very physical production, but the undoubted star of the show is Joy Fernandes as Bottom. From his first appearance as the blustering arrogant oaf in the preparations for the amateur theatre production, he is hilarious, and when he gets transformed into an ass with a rather rude object dangling from his front, he sends the audience into near-delirium. With great performances, lots of laughs, some very erotic friction (ahem) and elegant staging, this version of A Midsummer Night's Dream may be a world away from most you'll see, but it's a triumphant show that brings Shakespeare's story to life even when his dialogue is lost in translation.