A Midsummer Night's Dream @ Bard in the Botanics

It's the most commonly performed script to feature in Bard in the Botanics' 2015 season, but Emily Reutlinger's 20th century take on A Midsummer Night's Dream is far from common. Aiming to bring the play's harsh treatment of women into sharp relief, the character of Hermia (Meghan Tyler) is centralised as she flees the Athenian court (repressive; authoritarian; fond of grey longcoats) into a nearby forest, the denizens of which are more Woodstock than Burnham Wood. Contrasting the two societies reveals the fraught position of women in each: while more hopeful than an arranged marriage, free love can have its price.

In dual roles as Hermia and Nick Bottom, Tyler shines. Put-upon but resilient, the former part is the play's empathetic centre while the latter is its comic zenith. Such double duty is necessary when you shrink a play with 20 speaking roles to suit five actors and a small chorus, and while this can be confusing it keeps the show nimble – as does the absence of a stage beyond a quiet grove in a corner of the Botanical Gardens.

It's hard to think of a more suitable space, and the company exploit it well. As characters vanish behind trees and appear over ridges, the bewitched forest feels manifest not only on stage but around the audience as a place where normal rules don't apply. By giving its source material only the respect it deserves, Reutlinger's refreshing adaptation brings out the best in one of Shakespeare's trickier plays to get right.