The Fairy Queen
★★★☆☆ Dreamlike
Pleasance Theatre: Mon 23 – Thurs 26 Feb 2026
Review by Ruth Bennett
Edinburgh Studio Opera’s production of The Fairy Queen, at the Pleasance until Thursday, takes on the many challenges of Henry Purcell’s much-adapted augmentation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Staged in collaboration with Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra and Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company, it is a whimsical, winsome production with many high points in the music and acting. Unevenness, lacklustre staging, and other constraints, however, unfortunately limit this semi-opera to a semi-success.
Fiona Hendry (Titania). Pic: Andrew Morris
Henry Purcell’s original 17th-century work was something of Shakespearean fanfiction: his characters shared the world of Shakespeare’s play, but their songs and interactions were outside the text of the drama, taking place between scenes and commenting obliquely on their themes.
Modern productions have at times chosen to present only the libretto, or the libretto plus full Shakespearean drama, or versions in between. For ESO, director Ella Reid has opted for a stripped-down drama containing charming Scottish touches, with an integrated libretto interwoven throughout. It’s an approach with many strengths.
tradeoffs
Of course, there are tradeoffs. Cutting out important parts – particularly exposition – from A Midsummer Night’s Dream leaves the audience without a guide through the puzzling enchantments and mischievous (and sometimes motiveless) fairy behaviour that follows, even while a considerable running time still remains.
Reese Ritchie as Autumn (centre) with chorus members Simon Hanks, Muqiao Yue, Ting Ting Zhang and Mia Clayton. Pic: Andrew Morris
The artistic choice to focus on the phantasmagorical nature of the action is a valid one, but it means the audience has to bring their own knowledge of Shakespeare to know what’s happening, or else just sit back and enjoy the music amid free-floating narrative elements.
The latter is possible, especially if you’re not averse to the lengthy recounting of dreams. The orchestra, under musical director Kristine Donnan, is excellent, and the music includes some lovely and less-performed arias. The standard of singing, across the large cast, is never less than capable.
Several soloists, such as Simon Hanks as Night, Lina Turner as Sleep, Audrey Hogg as Secrecy, and Sophia Mashwani in multiple roles display startlingly beautiful voices, with just a touch of shimmering vibrato fully appropriate for the Baroque score.
tentative self-consciousness
Unevenness in the vocal performances comes less from large differences in skill than in performance polish. While singers such as Mashwani and Hannah-Rose Laverick (in multiple roles) match their impressive musicality with equal poise, professionalism, and acting chops, many other members of the cast – while perfectly accomplished as singers – exhibit the kind of tentative self-consciousness and unease that can hamper student productions and prevent the audience from losing themselves in the show.
Mia Clayton as Drunken Poet, with chorus members Ting Ting Zhang, Audrey Hogg, Portia Macey-Dare, Katie O’Connor, Tiago Adulis, Aisling Ní Dhochartaigh, Anna Myroshnychenko and Catriona Simpson. Pic: Andrew Morris.
The dramatic performances fare better. Mia Clayton clowns confidently as Bottom, bringing a magnetic verve to her reimagined Highland coo while also excelling in her doubled singing role as the Drunk Poet.
As Titania, Fiona Hendry’s arch campiness at being enchanted into bestial love is pitched exactly right. As the impish Puck, Jack Greengross brings a balletic physicality to the role, but his delivery cannot compete with the orchestra during key speeches.
a nod to the traditions
The four fairy-crossed lovers – Lysander (Ariella Glaser), Hermia (Rhodd Friswell), Demetrius (Mary Pilkington) and Helena (India Keane) – give talented, agreeable performances. Pilkington, especially, finesses the difficult task of making Shakespearean language feel entirely natural to her character, and Friswell is skilled in telegraphing emotions. The wit of the lines often doesn’t land, but the actors compensate with effective comic dumbshow, in a nod to the traditions of the original masques.
India Keane (Helena) and Mary Pilkington (Demetruis). Pic: Andrew Morris.
Physical constraints of the performance space are a serious problem. There is no pit; the orchestra is on full display in front of the stage. They not only visually and acoustically block Greengross, who delivers most of his lines from a crouching position, but also every singer – and there are oddly many – who sits or crouches on stage.
The 21-piece orchestra, with their bright stand lights, also create a distancing barrier between the audience and the action, adding a likely unintentional Brechtian effect that detracts from immediacy and blunts the dramatic aspects. Their distracting behaviour during non-playing times, which would be unseen and unobjectionable in a pit, here reinforces the feel of a student production.
hard challenges
The size of the stage relative to the number of actors is also an issue. The set is spare to the point of nonexistence, as there isn’t much room for more, and only basic choreography is possible in group scenes.
These are, granted, hard challenges to overcome, but they appear to be met with resignation rather than creativity. This is unfortunate, because the production cries out for visuals to counter the lack of a cohesive narrative and the extended stretches that feel static and tensionless.
The music and many of the performances in The Fairy Queen are absolutely terrific, but more is required than is offered by this approach for the running time not to feel overlong.
Running time: Two hours and 45 minutes (including interval)
Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ
Mon 23 – Thurs 26 Feb 2026
Evenings: 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
ESO website: edinburghstudioopera.org
Instagram: @edstudioopera
Linktree: @edstudioopera
Audrey Hogg (Secrecy), Aisling Ní Dhochartaigh (Mystery), Simon Hanks (Night), Lina Turner (Sleep) and Jack Greengross (Puck). Pic: Andrew Morris.
ENDS
