★★★½☆ Kip Williams’ Dream leans more to tragedy than mirth in his first production as Interim Artistic Director.

Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre
September 16, 2016

“Very tragical mirth” is the way Peter Quince describes Pyramus and Thisbe – the play within a play – in Sydney Theatre Company’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But it is more to the tragic than the mirth that Kip Williams leans in his first production since being named interim Artistic Director, as he explores the more troubling ideas about sexuality, power and consent that emerge from Shakespeare’s text.

Brutal flashes of light and sound open this stark vision of Shakespeare’s comedy, retina-searing blasts illuminating a male dancer in black sequined underwear (who later turns out to be Matthew Backer as Puck) writhing to a sad rendition of Gershwin’s Summertime – a musical motif that returns throughout the play.

^{Robert Menzies as Oberon and Matthew Backer as Puck, photo © Brett Boardman}

Williams’ Athens is a dystopic nightmare, Robert Cousins’ set a stark black and white space. Theseus (Robert Menzies) and Hippolyta (Paula Arundell) appear in wedding garb like a mocking cake-topper. A dark...