Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream ****
English National Opera, 1st March 2018
Heading to the Coliseum for A Midsummer Night’s Dream amid snow and ice is a disconcerting prospect – “hot ice and strange snow” indeed. Forget wild thyme blowing and substitute a wintry Siberian blast whistling down your neck. Robert Carsen’s production, which originated at the Festival d’Aix en Provence a lifetime ago in 1991, certainly has an austere, glacial aesthetic, but his treatment of Britten’s Shakespearean comedy is anything but chilly. He offers madcap fun and Puckish pratfalls but, when it matters, there is stillness and touching sincerity. It remains a knockout bit of theatre.
Joshua Bloom (Bottom) and Soraya Mafi (Tytania)
© Robert Workman
Read the full review on Bachtrack.