I love Shakespearean comedies, and like the childhood stories I begged to hear over and over, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' never fails to please. But just as I noticed when something had been left out of those beloved stories, I also missed some of my favourite bits in the Aquila Theatre Company's production of the play staged at the City Hall as part of the Bermuda Festival.

The play opens ominously, with Hermia offered unpalatable choices: death, seclusion in a convent or marriage to the inconstant Demetrius. What she really wants is to marry Lysander, and agrees to meet him in the forest and from there flee with him to the home of his dowager aunt - a fairy godmother, if ever there was one. As a consolation of sorts, they tell their plans to Helena, besotted with Demetrius, and she as promptly reveals their plans to her former lover hoping to win his gratitude. In the meantime, a group of Athenian labourers also plan to meet in the woods, for an altogether different purpose: to rehearse a play prepared as part of the wedding celebrations of Duke Theseus and his bride, the Amazon Hippolyta. Unwittingly, one of their group, Bottom, is drawn into the quarrel between the fairy queen, Titania, and her consort, Oberon. The tangle of misunderstandings, mistaken identities and practical jokes is finally unravelled into a happy ending.

When one goes to see a play knowing what the outcome of the action will be, the joy is in seeing how the play will be interpreted. Beginning the production with excerpts from Act V and Bottom's solo, "The Ousel Cock", created a sense of an overture, and, as that was also the tune used for the bergomask dance at the end of the play, also a sense of cyclical motion -here we are again, but not quite the same as when we began.

The dressing of the actors in similar clothing - all the men in black morning coats and the ladies in deep red brocade - made it easier to understand Puck's confusion of the two pairs of lovers. It also subtly suggested that all the women were aspects of one woman, that every woman could at one point in her life be the silent, aloof Hippolyta, the weepy, pathetic Helena or the furious, violent Hermia. The doubling up of the actors added another layer of thoughtful interpretation as the fierce Hermia was played by Lindsay Rae Taylor who later also played the gentle lion, and Guy Oliver-Watts, who portrayed the puritanical, unyielding father Egeus also took on the role of the mischievous imp, Puck.

It wasn't until Act II when the action shifted to the forest glade that the ingenuity of the artistic director was fully appreciated. The umbrellas that had shielded the rehearsing mechanics from the downpour in the previous scene became toadstools, bracken shivering with raindrops in the damp forest, strange, overhanging branches under which the frightened, lost lovers sheltered. Coupled with the dry ice, the imaginative lighting created a fantastical atmosphere - gloomy, foggy streets in one scene and in another misty woodland where a will o' the wisp could very easily lead one astray. Pendant umbrellas, at times glowing like tiffany lamps at others glinting like stars through tree tops, created a bower fit for a fairy queen.

What worked well for the dreamy atmosphere of the night did not translate as well to the festivities celebrated on midsummer's day, and I for one found the wedding celebrations somewhat subdued.

Because of the doubling up of the actors, some of the witty repartee of the final act was omitted - the audience of 'The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe' was reduced to two; however, I dare say this view was not shared by most of the audience.

No manner of clever staging will overcome weak acting, so the ultimate success of the production is due to the strong performances of the cast, whose delivery made the play accessible to even the youngest members of the audience who found the 16th century language no barrier to complete enjoyment of the play.

The beauty of the more poetic passages did not jar in the least with the slapstick comedy of the lovers. The transition from one to the other was helped by the fluidity of scene changes made possible by the umbrellas, but also by the versatility of the actors. Richard Wills' portrayal of the endearing, annoying Bottom was particularly enjoyable.

To sum, up this production was, using comments from a number of the audience: magical, ingenious, clever. Although there were only two opportunities to see this particular production, the Aquila Theatre Company is also performing The Importance of Being Ernest tonight and tomorrow at the City Hall Theatre. The play begins at 8.00pm, but if at all possible, attend the pre-performance talk in the Bermuda National Gallery at 7.00 pm. The insights gained make the performance even more enjoyable.

Jennifer Hind