Evening Standard (London): BRAVELY BACKING THE BARD IN THE SUBURBS

THOSE who are content to think that theatre in this country is, more or less, in good shape should have been at the curtain call on the press night in Hornchurch.

Bottom, or Matt Devitt as he is known outside the magical Athenian wood, stepped forward and thanked the audience for their support, pointing out that this is the first Shakespeare to be produced at the Queen's Theatre for 15 years. The current undertaking was, therefore, a "risk play", and if people had liked it would they please get everyone they knew to come and support it.

Mercifully for the pro-Bard faction, there is little not to like in this production of what is normally considered one of the safest theatrical bets going. Indeed, there is much to admire, starting with the innovative employment of the Bebeto String Quartet as the fairies. The four musicians leap around the stage, instruments aloft and bows a-twinkle with lights, playing tuneful excerpts from the likes of Debussy and Satie. The effect is an atmospheric evocation of a realm of midsummer madness in which anything is possible.

Down on the mortal plain, however, we encounter a few problems. Director Bob Carlton, who with his hit Bard-inspired musicals Return to the Forbidden Planet and From a Jack to a King did for Shakespeare on stage what Baz Luhrmann did for him on film, is at great pains to stress the accessibility of the work.

The upshot of this is that most lines are taken at far too quick a pace, as though they need to be got out of the way before the punters become twitchy.

The lovers are a fairly shrill and charmless bunch, which is a pity when both the fairies and the rude mechanicals, especially Fredrick Ruth's Oberon and Devitt's Bottom, acquit themselves admirably.

Rodney Ford's set is all suspended umbrellas, cloud motifs and hat stands and is, for reasons that aren't conclusive, modelled on the surrealist Ren Magritte. Be that as it may, it looks impressive, which is surely all that counts when the theatrical roulette wheel is being spun. May Hornchurch's lucky number keep coming up.

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