Aiming to explore issues of life and faith through the performing arts, the Space Theatre Company, based at St John’s Church in Broadbridge Heath, has presented a diverse range of original and entertaining productions to very appreciative audiences over the past three years, its members visibly growing in confidence with each new venture. Nevertheless, the bold decision this year to present a full length production of one of Shakespeare’s best loved plays has taken the company into new and, for them, uncharted territory.

The result, however – as anyone who was lucky enough to attend one of the four excellent performances will readily confirm – was a wonderfully fresh yet thoroughly professional presentation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, clearly enjoyed as much by the actors as by the audience. Shakespeare is never easy to pull off, especially outside the professional theatre. However, director Hugo Ellis managed to draw from all his actors (many of them relatively new to drama) such well-honed yet energetic performances that the meaning of the words and the convolutions of the plot were rendered readily accessible to all, with the play’s enduring humour and subtle sensuality being exploited to the full.

A loosely 1920’s setting, with cricket whites, long dresses and rival lovers attempting to set about each other with a cricket bat and rowing oar, gave the play a light-hearted feel. In true Elizabethan style, there was much doubling up of parts with courtiers, mechanicals and fairies all played by the same small male ensemble. Full use was made of the church’s dramatic (in both senses) space, with the audience on three sides, simple but effective scenery, plenty of movement, and some novel use of ecclesiastical furniture! Music was again simple but effective, the making or breaking of each spell marked by the single ‘ting’ of a little pair of finger bells.

Individual performances being of a universally high standard, one is reluctant to single anyone out, but special mention must go to Hugo Ellis for his richly toned (and richly attired) Oberon, at once both playful and yet quietly menacing, and to Nigel Hills, whose superb comic timing and wonderful facial expressions made for a memorable Bottom(!).

Whither ‘The Space’ hereafter? More, no doubt, anon. But whatever their next production, be it secular or sacred, their excellent ‘Dream’ gives every reason to expect that it will be no homespun ‘Pyramus and Thisby’ and more than worth the entrance price.