Midsummer Mechanicals At The Globe Theatre, London Review

Reviewed by Amanda Hayes

Despite working in London, I hadn’t actually been to the iconic Globe theatre, or explored the South Bank area, so when I was offered the opportunity to review a family orientated play there, I was really looking forward to it. The play in question, was Midsummer Mechanicals, a comedic take on Midsummer Night’s Dream, and advertised as an age range of 5-105 so sounded perfect for me and my 10 year old son, especially as he is just starting to study Shakespeare at school.

The Globe is only a ten minute walk from either London Bridge or Blackfriars Station and is an easy and enjoyable, if not rather crowded, walk along the Thames to get there. The walk is littered with eateries, so you won’t have a problem finding somewhere to eat either before of after, however the theatre has its own café in the foyer plus the Swan Restaurant, which offers a great selection of menus from afternoon tea to weekend brunch.

With half an hour to spare we opted for a quick snack in the café, where both the home-made sausage roll, and coronation chicken sandwich were delicious. We then topped up our water bottle with complimentary water from the cooler in the lobby, and we were ready for the show. Having not been before I didn’t realise that there were actually two performance spaces there, the outdoor Globe and the indoor, more intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, where we found Midsummer Mechanicals was being held. This is fairly recently opened, back in 2014, and is delightfully styled on a Jacobean theatre with a green oak frame and a beautiful ceiling mural based on a 17th Century stately home. The seats are all styled like timber pews and rise high above the stage, there are also seats at stage level if you are keen on audience participation, however the theatre is small enough that everyone got involved in the performance, from doing sound affects to throwing snowballs!

The first half of the performance was setting up the play, which was performed in the second half, like a play within a play, and was very amusing. The way it began with the characters interacting with the audience from the minute they entered, you weren’t 100% sure when it had actually started. With 1hr 50m running time, I thought those timber seats might be a bit of a struggle, but it just flew by. Loosely based on Midsummer Nights Dream, it features craftsmen Nicholas Bottom (Kerry Frampton), Peter Quince (Jamal Franklin) and Francis Flute (Sam Glenn), together with Tom Snouts wife, Patience (Melody Brown) as the Rude Mechanicals coming back together to create a new play, one year later. There are plenty of references to Midsummer Nights Dream, most of which the younger audience wouldn’t get, and I had to explain to my son, but that didn’t matter. The kids were kept well and truly engaged with reoccurring songs, play fighting and spontaneous gags arising from the audience participation. Both me and my son really enjoyed it, and by the look of the faces on the rest of the audience they did too.

We found Midsummer Mechanicals to be a great introduction to Shakespeare in a wonderful setting and would recommend the show to any family this summer. To complete your day out, The Globe also has a great Shakespeare themed shop, which is worth a visit in its own right and also holds pre bookable theatre tours, so there is something for everyone.

Rating: Highly recommended 5 out of 5

Tickets cost from £18 to £28 (plus £2.50 transaction fee).

Midsummer Mechanicals is at The Globe Theatre, London from 29 July – 26 August, for more information or to book tickets visit https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/midsummer-mechanicals-2023/ or call the box office on 0 7401 9919.

The Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, SE1 9DT.