Bucks &amp; Oxon

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-12.jpg" alt="Creation Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream actors dressed up in flowers" class="wp-image-193257" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-12.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-12-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-12-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image credit: Geraint Lewis</figcaption></figure>



You know when summer has truly arrived in Oxford when Creation Theatre brings its open air Shakespeare to the city. This year’s treasure is <a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</a>, Shakespeare’s ‘play within a play’ comedy set in 12th century Athens, which explores such universal themes as the irrationality of love, the power of storytelling, and reality v illusion, but there&#8217;s plenty enough magic, meddling fairies and silliness to thrill younger theatre goers too.



Creation Theatre is Oxfordshire&#8217;s largest producing theatre company and it&#8217;s built its hard-won reputation over the last 30 years on its innovative approach. They love to surprise – performing in the MINI car plant in 2001 definitely set the tone on that one – and 2026 promises to be a Shakespeare summer with not one but two plays to savour – <a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</a> (8 Jul – 14 Aug 2026) and <a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/summer-shakespeare-twelfth-night/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twelfth Night, Or What You Will</a> (16 Jul – 16 Aug) performed at Oxford University’s Wolfson College Cricket Ground. A bit of an under the radar venue, even for me.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-2.jpg" alt="Creation Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream actors" class="wp-image-193268" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-2.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-2-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-2-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Rachael Adeyoluwa as Helena, with Neil Urquhart as Demetrius</figcaption></figure>



Finding the show is all part of the fun, so you get to the college (for bearings, think Cherwell Boathouse) with posters up to guide you “Keep going&#8230;.”, with arrows pointing onwards past the Brutalist mid-century buildings down towards the destination. When you reach the venue, you&#8217;ll see a modest grassy recreation area upon which is Creation Theatre&#8217;s large, square, no-sided canopy tent, along with some low-key garden games for kids to play, and a smattering of floral-strewn props to set the scene of the play. Overall it gives off English village fête vibes – think bunting, theatre goers sitting outside on tables or picnicking in the tent itself, fizz popping, and families sitting on rugs on the floor. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike.jpeg" alt="Creation Theatre Wolfson Hall Cricket Ground tent and bike" class="wp-image-193285" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike-600x800.jpeg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike-750x1000.jpeg 750w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike-300x400.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Midsummer-Nights-Dream-Oxford-2025-bike-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Muddy Stilettos</figcaption></figure>



At 7pm, with the tent full, two members of the audience – now revealed as actors – stand up, and the play begins. I&#8217;m happy to report that this it two hours of your life (including the interval) that will be very well spent.&nbsp; Performing in the round at close quarters, the six actors delivered a slick, professional and well-timed comic production that charmingly incorporated music, singing, dancing, audience participation (nothing too scary – don’t let that put you off) and seemingly limitless laugh-out-loud moments. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1622" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2.jpg" alt="MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM CREATION THEATRE WOLFSON HALL CRICKET GROUND OXFORD" class="wp-image-193281" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2-740x800.jpg 740w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2-925x1000.jpg 925w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2-370x400.jpg 370w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatre-A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-dancing-2-1420x1536.jpg 1420w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Muddy Stilettos</figcaption></figure>



Last year&#8217;s cast were superb and, happily, they&#8217;re all back for 2026. We were particularly impressed by Lydia-May Cooney, whose performances as Titania, Puck and Hippolyta were packed with charm, confidence and more than a little magic – she spent a lot of time cycling around the recreation ground as part of the show. Ben Elder had charisma in buckets and great comic timing as Bottom/Oberon/Theseus, and Andy Owens as Lysander went all out for laughs, and landed them with ease.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-3.jpg" alt="Creation Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream actors jumping up and down with joy" class="wp-image-193267" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-3.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-3-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-3-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Andy Owens as Lysander and Hayley Murray as Hermia</figcaption></figure>



Guitars, recorders, percussion and the strong singing voices of the actors were the simple tools used by composer/ musical director Alex Silverman to create a magical atmosphere, and director Helen Eastman worked hard to move the action around the four sides of the canopy space to keep the audience entranced – the actors even bowing simultaneously in two directions at the end of the performance.



The audience was a lovely mix of couples, friends and a large number of families too – the kids seemed to really enjoyed it, with the Creation cast involving them during the show, and afterwards too, inviting them to join in a dance. I had come to this show straight from a long, hot day in London and expected to feel fatigued by the second half. Instead it was a really uplifting, joyful experience and those two hours went in a flash – the acid test of a great production. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-muddy-verdict">THE MUDDY VERDICT</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream.jpg" alt="Creation Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream actor with flower necklace" class="wp-image-193270" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/Creation-Theatres-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-400x267.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ben Elder as Oberon</figcaption></figure>



Good for: It&#8217;s a lovely introduction to Shakespeare for families, and anyone who enjoys the intoxicating festival energy of outdoor theatre. Bring a blanket for evening performances and be prepared for rain– as you&#8217;d expect from a British theatre company, the show will go on whatever the weather. With an age guide of 5 to 105, this is one of those rare shows that genuinely has something for everyone.



Not for: If ease and accessibility is important for you, you might not appreciate the basic Portaloos and lack of onsite parking. 



<a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/a-midsummer-nights-dream-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</a> by Creation Theatre, runs from 8 July – 14 Aug and <a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/show/summer-shakespeare-twelfth-night/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twelfth Night, Or What You Will</a> runs from 16 July – 16 Aug, both at Wolfson College Cricket Grounds, Oxford. Wolfson College, Linton Rd, Oxford OX2 6UD. Performances at 2pm &amp; 7pm (3pm on Sundays). Tickets £15 &#8211; £60. 



<a href="https://creationtheatre.co.uk/current-shows/summer-shakespeare/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BOOK TICKETS</a>



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Review: Creation Theatre’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Oxford

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