The authors of this rumbustious and, let’s face it, rather silly version of the Shakespeare classic, Adam Long and Allan Plenderleith, are seasoned professional comedy writers. The Barn is very privileged, therefore, not only to be giving the first performance of their script, but also to have the authors direct this production. The result shows its class, being a well-engineered evening of laughs and mayhem, performed by this cast with energy and enthusiasm.

The plot is actually pretty close to the Shakespeare original. The court is replaced by a teenagers’ holiday camp, with its two leaders about to get married. The lovers are four teenagers at the camp and the mechanicals are young people putting together a film. The fairies are now a sort of zombie that feeds off people’s emotions rather than their brains, and the spells cast on the lovers cause them to become traditional brain-eating zombies, lusting after the brain of the first person they see. Surprisingly, all this nonsense seems to work within Shakespeare’s plot framework and gives a lovely excuse for some members of the cast to shuffle along in zombie masks groaning while others run around screaming. Incidentally it also gives the fairies, I’m sorry, Emotion Zombies a good reason for interfering in the love lives of the humans – an improvement on Shakespeare perhaps?

Music and singing were a feature of the evening and this was particularly well executed. Making songs funny is not easy and the cast, direction and, particularly, the music production of Rob Wallace and Elliott Thomas did a tremendous job here. The Funky, Zombie, Donkey Love number really hit my funny spot, and the show closed to a rip-roaring rendition of You Really Got Me by the Kinks to the words ‘MidSUMmer Night’s Scream’. Rob Wallace as sound designer was also responsible for innumerable sound effects for characters appearing and disappearing, having spells cast on them, becoming zombies, etc, all of which worked a treat, lubricating the comedy.

The set was dominated by video projection onto a screen at the back. Mostly this was just showing static pictures to set the scene, starting with the holiday camp and then followed by a lovely transition from day to night, when the moon bounces into the sky and the scout camp becomes forest logs with subtle falling snow. This provides most of the atmosphere needed, with just a few tree flats in addition.

Making the mechanicals’ play into a film allows there to be an on-stage camera which has a live feed that at times is projected onto the screen at the back of the stage. Some fun is had by pointing the camera at the audience, the cast pretending they’re finding horrible ghouls and getting us to act out being trees waving in the wind. When the time comes for the wedding party to be entertained, we’re treated to the film that they supposedly shot, actually filmed in real woodland in Blair Witch Project style, with bewitched cast members in zombie masks popping out from behind trees, etc. The ghouls and trees from the audience also put in an appearance, which naturally got a good laugh. Combining film and live action can be tricky – you don’t want the film to dominate – however this was handled well. The film was kept short and snappy and segued well into the following live action, which involved a zombified Bottom having his head lopped off with a giant axe while green blood spurted across the back screen. This was then revealed to be part of the mechanicals’ performance – a nicely timed sequence.

The many masks required were made by Christine and Matt Neil, not just for the zombies, and these were generally impressive and effective, though I did wonder about the wisdom of covering the zombie masks with little lights – on the stage you couldn’t see the shape or colour of the mask underneath.

This was very much an ensemble piece, with all members of the cast working well together to keep up the energy and bring off the comic business. Congratulations are due all round, but picking out a few names: Jon Gavaghan and Lucy Portalska were a great double act as Rooster and Phaedre, also showing great flexibility in being a completely different great double act as Oberon and Titania. Lauren Ryan as Quince and Alani Doggett as Lou carried a lot of the action and created some of the best original comedy between them. Young Jonah Cook as Bottom showed good acting instincts, with the timing to land jokes successfully. I liked the way he performed the famous “I had a dream” speech which starts with the Shakespeare and then suddenly abandons it half way though. The lovers had parts that seemed to stick closer to Shakespeare and were harder to make funny as a result: the cast made the most of what they had, but at times the mood was a little odd – they could seem out of place. Cayla Du Plessis claims not to have acted before – I’m not sure I believe it, she seems a natural, though she could work perhaps on her microphone technique.

A particular shout-out goes to Rhia Beeharry for her Puck / Phil. She exuberated joie de vivre and threw herself into all of her many bits of business with athleticism and glee. A real star turn.

This was, overall, a great piece of family entertainment. I was slightly sorry that the audience I was in wasn’t a bit rowdier, hopefully other nights were. I trust that the show’s creators, Adam and Allen, will feel that this is a piece that the Barn has demonstrated works a treat and that more performances will follow. A West End run, perhaps?