'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Noel Coward Theatre ****

The current production of the opening season of the Michael Grandage Company 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was a production full of delight. I thought that Michael Grandage has constructed a very successful contextualised  performance of William Shakespeare's comedy. I particularly  found the abandoned and destroyed country house to convey the forest to be a fascinating and highly intriguing concept which seemed that the attention to detail to be of near perfection. The performances by its two lead actors, David Walliams who in my opinion plays the actor turned donkey Bottom to be well presented but I found some of his 'Little Britain' traits to be exuding through the role. Sheridan Smith's portrayal of Titania/Hippolyta was superb as she has understood the balance of playing a straight faced woman in a business suit to a fairy who seems to be under the influence of drugs. What a brilliant interpretation of the role. In addition I found the ensemble work to be of a good standard but I thought the voice projection wasn't so well presented as I had a vast amount of trouble hearing what they were saying.  The director Michael Grandage has understood  the level of detail needed to craft a well established play to appeal to a contemporary audience and it seemed whilst observing the audiences reaction  to it was perceived well. It also seems to me that the time taken to put this production from rehearsal to construction  seemed to be utilized effectively. Another successful play for the Michael Grandage Company.   The shows designer who has designed all of the productions for Michael Grandage, Christopher Oram has designed a parallel world where all the characters are on a sort of 'acid trip' and that the juxtaposition betwwen the hippie world the normal world works particularly well for ones liking. It feels to me that the director and the designer have worked seamlessly together to pull of a good production that audiences seems to admire and love.  It's safe to say that the Michael Grandage Company is starting a trend to the future of up and coming theatre companies . Well done to the Michael Grandage Company for another spectacular performance.