Deep in the woods, fairies play under the starry night sky, bathed in moonlight and dancing on the breeze. And so do we, it seems, as we are taken on a frolic through the forest for a little bit of Shakespearean fun that produces plenty of laughs.  

If ever there was a perfect setting to stage Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it is, undoubtedly, Maynardville Park. With fairy lights strung up in the branches and the audience ushered into a clearing in the trees, this is no longer a park in Cape Town, but a secret, charming place. Just for one night, audience and actors alike are transported. 

After years of hiatus, Shakespeare at Maynardville is back, and the joyful, comedic love story is hopefully the first of many to return to this iconic venue. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Maynardville reopens with a delightful, Shakespeare-filled programme”

The set design itself is simple enough; green grass covers the stage with flowers draped around, but what happens offstage is what really draws the audience in. Nature here is as much an actor as all the rest, bringing an element that no human-made design could. Under the shadow of Table Mountain, the wind brushes through the clearing, birds chirp as they settle in for the night and small insects catch the stage lights, sparking golden for barely a brief second before they vanish into the darkness. 

And then, in the hush that falls over the audience as a play is about to begin, the lovable Puck, played with enigmatic energy by Sophie Joans, bounds through the centre aisle and clambers up on to the stage.

Puck (Sophie Joans) and Oberon (Chi Mhende) conspire in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Maynardville. Image: Mark Wessels

Directed by Geoffrey Hyland and produced by VR Productions, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set between the court of Athens and the enchanted woods nearby, and follows four lovers, a troupe of actors and a king and queen and their loyal fairies. 

The two “couples” find themselves in a lovers’ tangle — Demetrius (Jock Kleynhans) is in love with Hermia (Nomfundo Selepe), who is in love with Lysander (Aidan Scott), but is forbidden to marry him. Helena (Lisa Tredoux) is in love with Lysander, but he does not return her affection. Hermia and Lysander resolve to elope, running away into the forest at night. Helena and Lysander follow, and the four are soon caught up in the magic of the wood and, of course, some fairy interference. 

Again, it is as much about what you see onstage as what you hear offstage, with Maynardville Park lending itself to be transformed to the enchanted forest as Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena chase each other — they are hidden in the woods, but the paths they make are heard as they rush through the trees, push through the leaves and call to one another.

Out of the trees also emerge the fairies, loyal to Titania and singing lullabies to her as she rests. The fairies are played by Dean Ricky Goldblum, Roland du Preez, Tankiso Mamabolo and Tailyn Ramsamy, who are also cast as the acting troupe in Athens and dish out jokes and wit that keep the audience laughing. 

Roberto Kyle as Titania in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Maynardville. Image: Mark Wessels

Mark Elderkin as Bottom in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Maynardville. Image: Mark Wessels

Some of these comedic moments, though, seem to sometimes toe the line of incongruous, with (maybe one too many) crude innuendos and gestures that can be surprising for a production that has historically seen hordes of Capetonian schoolchildren bused into Maynardville every year. While the casting of Roberto Kyle and Chi Mhende avoids leaning into stereotypes of men and women, the same cannot be said for the fairies, where the jokes feel like cheap shots at stereotypical comedic takes on masculinity and femininity. 

Yet, with that in mind, it may be important to remember the nature of Shakespeare’s comedies, which were if anything, filled with absurd and not always politically correct puns. At the end of the play, in fact, Puck addresses the audience again, offering up an apology of sorts to their new friends: 

“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.” 

And the play is just that; a dreamy frivolity, perhaps not meant to be taken so seriously by this reviewer — who will leave you to decide for yourself. DM/ML

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Maynardville runs until 23 February. Tickets are available on Quicket.