A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the signature play of the Australian Shakespeare Company, which has been taking The Bard into Melbourne’s great outdoors since 1987. There is surely no more familiar, COVID-safe way for the city to ease back into theatre, and escape reality with a liberal sprinkle of fairy magic and an even bigger offering of broad comedy.

Australian Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo courtesy of Australian Shakespeare Company

A forest romp in which feuding fairies, mismatched lovers and some very amateur actors are muddled by a love potion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was entertainment for the masses 400 years ago. This production is unapologetic about making it 21st-century accessible – for children, those who don’t frequent the theatre, or aren’t entirely comfortable with Shakespeare’s archaic language. The play is trimmed to the bare essential two hours (plus interval). Snippets of contemporary English are scattered throughout, which will further irk Shakespeare purists but undoubtedly eases understanding and raises some easy laughs. The actors throw themselves into drawing out the text’s meaning with vocal and physical emphasis, often shamelessly hamming up the comedy.

All this works well in...