"For the past ten years, people have been making fun of the 80s," Canadian actress Lexa Doig complained recently. "Why are we bringing them back?" As one takes one's seat in B Sharp's Downstairs Theatre, one may wonder exactly the same thing. Eamon Flack's production of what is essentially Shakespeare's sex comedy opens with Theseus serenading Hippolyta with a rendition of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'The Power of Love', which he plays on a Casio keyboard. The set—a tiny garden-party stage of turf and a tacky-looking curtain of tinsel—looks like something out of The Wedding Singer. The answer to Doig's question suddenly seems obvious: people are bringing the 80s back precisely to make fun of them. Not that the bad-hair decade is this production's only target, of course. The Bard comes in for his fair share of whipping, too: this is a Dream that delights in veering, often completely, off script, with a cast of bright, young, anarchic things who aim to misbehave and succeed with aplomb. Breaking character and the fourth wall in equal measure, Charlie Garber is very good as Bottom and Puck, and Gareth Davies delivers what is perhaps the most hysterical and transgressive performance of the year as a wild-eyed Flute, the Bellows-Mender.

The Australian, 18 December 2009