18th – 20th July 2025
In 2021, as lockdown lifted, we were proud to transform the Covid nightmare into a Midsummer (Night’s) Dream, with a fittingly festive play in a perfect and magical setting. Rehearsals were strange and distanced, the performances (featuring guest appearances from a full moon and a rainbow) were riotous and rapturously received. As the formula worked so well, we will be remounting the same production this summer. Eight versatile actors will again delight audiences, performing a timeless classic in amongst the woodland wonders of Wylds Farm. Come with us for a walk on the Wyld side: the evening begins with tasty refreshments and live music at the “Bottoms Up” bar, then we promenade “en masse” up the hill to be immersed in the magical world of the play: an enchanted forest full of warring fairies, sparring lovers and a group of amateur actors secretly rehearsing a play. What could possibly go wrong…?!
The venue will be open early so you can enjoy the family-friendly festival vibe and beautiful surroundings before the show.
Cast
Here’s what you said
“It was beautiful storytelling; uncluttered, clear and honest. What a feat!”
“…fast, funny, moving,atmospheric, skilled. Forget the National and the R.S.C. come down to Hampshire and see how Shakespeare should be done!“
“Eight outstanding actors play all the parts between them with a freshness and vitality that never flags.”
PSF in support of MIND
This year we have chosen to use our festival to raise funds and awareness for the work of MIND. One in four adults in England and Wales experience a mental health problem each year. Far too many wait months to get support, including for the most serious mental illnesses. Far too many get more unwell as they wait.
In 2024, the PSF family suffered a tragic loss when Jon-Paul Rowden, who had acted with us for many years and provided our audiences with some of their most loved performances, took his own life following a prolonged struggle with his mental health. Our 2025 revival of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is dedicated to him and the joy he brought to the stage, particularly as Bottom in our original version of the play.
In support of MIND, audience members will have the option of donating an additional £2 or more to the price of their tickets, which will go directly to the charity, and PSF staff will also be contributing a proportion of their fees to this urgent and necessary cause.
For further information click below:
Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy the show!
Synopsis
Theseus, Duke of Athens, has won Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, in battle. He intends to marry her, but his celebrations are interrupted: Egeus wants his rebellious daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius but Hermia refuses, because she’s in love with Lysander. The Duke orders Hermia to obey her father or, according to Athenian law, she must either face the death penalty or become a nun.
Hermia and Lysander decide to elope that night. They confide in their friend Helena. However, she’s secretly in love with Demetrius so, hoping to win his affection, she tells him of Hermia’s plan. That night, all four lovers set out into the woods.
Meanwhile, a group of Athenians (known as “the Mechanicals”, because of their manual jobs), are planning to perform a play in celebration of the Duke’s wedding. Led by Peter Quince, they plan to rehearse The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, secretly, in the same wood.
Elsewhere, the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, argue over Titania’s refusal to give up her page-boy to Oberon. He sends his servant Puck to find a magic plant to cast a spell on Titania in revenge. The juice of the plant, when squeezed onto the eyes of someone asleep, causes them to fall in love with the first creature they see when they wake up. Oberon uses the juice on Titania as she sleeps in her bower.
Puck finds the Mechanicals rehearsing. He magically transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass. The others are terrified and flee the forest. When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom and she falls rapturously in love with him.
Helena chases Demetrius through the forest and their fighting disturbs Oberon. He tells Puck to use part of the magic plant on Demetrius, so that he will fall in love with Helena. However, Puck mixes up the two Athenian men and uses it on Lysander instead, who promptly falls in love with Helena. Now, with both men chasing a confused Helena, chaos reigns. Hermia furiously attacks her friend Helena for disloyalty and turning everyone against her.
Before the men can come to blows, Puck lulls the exhausted lovers to sleep, and Oberon lifts all the enchantments to restore order. Upon waking, Titania is horrified that she’s been “enamoured of an ass” and is reconciled with Oberon.
On the morning of their wedding, Theseus and Hippolyta come across the sleeping lovers, who decide the night’s events must have all been a dream. Lysander and Hermia are back to normal, and Demetrius admits he does love Helena after all. So the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta becomes a triple celebration, as the other couples marry too. The Mechanicals’ play is chosen as royal entertainment and a fairly amateur version of Pyramus and Thisbe amuses the royal couple.
As all the newly-weds retire to bed, Oberon gathers with the fairies to bless the palace, the couples and their future children.