Michael Grandage's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Noel Coward Theatre 25th October.

When was the last time you saw a Shakespeare comedy that was so funny the whole audience repeatedly belly laughed? Anyone with a ticket to this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be able to easily answer that question.

There are always high expectations when “stars” are cast in Westend shows and sometimes that very expectation can be the production’s downfall. Casting David Walliams as Bottom and Sheridan Smith as Titania was a risk worth taking. Walliams played the part of the clown with expert timing and a great deal of showmanship. Though he occasionally exhibited familiar gestures, such as stroking another characters face, and expressions from his TV characters, this actually fitted perfectly with his portrayal of Bottom. He was very ably assisted by the rest of the amateur actors hopeful of performing for the Duke at his wedding. Together they proved the often disputed fact that Shakespeare’s writing can still be funny today when performed by comic actors.

Smith carried off the dual characterisations of Titania and Hippolyta making each her own. Her Titania was sumptuous and joyful, played with an overt sexuality which was a recurring theme of the fairy court. Another theme of the fairy court seemed to be symbolic of an altered state of reality where they all got high on Titania’s cigarettes. I wasn’t convinced by this interpretation mostly because of the characterisation of Puck (the Fairy King, Oberon’s servant). This Puck was less a clever trickster, more a drunken frat boy playing practical jokes. I felt this made his actions (upon which the confusion and cross-purposes driving the main action of the play hinge) accidental rather than executed according to a plan designed to cause mischief.

The sexual undercurrents of the original text are brought unapologetically to the fore in this production, with the four lovers shedding their dull coloured and modest Athenian garments as they delve deeper into the fairy kingdom, until they are all scantily clad in pure white undergarments. The antics of these four were played with brilliant physicality and humour. Helena, played by the superb Katherine Kingsley, in particular had the audience on side and laughing from her first speech.

There is further symbolism in Michael Grandage’s creation, in the set design of the two main stages. The fairy court is a ruined version of the Athenian court with a great hole rent in the back wall through which a giant moon shines. I was struck in the very first scene by the blocking which from my vantage point in the Grand Circle seemed very precise and often symmetrical about centre stage. This was very effective in concentrating attention on character groupings and I couldn’t help but wonder how the staging would look from different angles in the theatre.

To experience this production from another visual perspective would only be one of many reasons why I’d be happy to watch this Dream again. This production might not be saying anything new but what it does say is extremely funny.