A piano, prominent on an otherwise empty stage, is a clear sign this production will place sound at the centre of Shakespeare’s song-filled play. It is the first thing we hear and becomes this pastoral’s most constant voice, syncopating its comedy and heightening its romance. The lovers, outcasts and locals who wander through Arden tip winks to its composer pianist, Michael Bruce, and will him to “shut up” or to play on cue.
That mime is part of a grander concept behind director Josie Rourke’s delicate and delightful production, which finds a perfect balance between West End spectacle and Shakespearean purity. The speeches of love, friendship and loyalty between characters come with the physicality and intimacy of British Sign Language, as central to the drama as music and song. It is organically interwoven and brings the play’s intensities surging to the surface.
