Shakespeare's wonderful play with the cleverly intertwined plots (the lovers of Athens and the dispute about marriage, the escape to the Forest, the row between Oberon and Titania over the changeling boy, and the mechanicals and their play for the Duke) is a regular for schools, and so the RST on a Thursday afternoon in term time was quite well filled with (rather well behaved) school children. I hope they enjoyed it. For my part, it was OK. Having admired Bally Gill as Romeo a few years ago, I found his depiction of the two roles of Theseus and Oberon a little unconvincing - maybe a little young to show the different sets of chemistry between him and Titania/Hippolyta. Equally the decision not to stage the fairies (Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed) but to use their voices off stage was disappointing, as was deciding to "rap" Peter Quince's prologue before the "play within a play" - you lost the comic cleverness of the words. However it was all very funny, of course, and the special effects worked well. A few gender swaps of course - Peter Quince and Snout were played by girls, as was Puck. It worked ok but with unchanged text I find it distracting. The music, composed by Will Gregory, was excellent, and the staging, although simple, was effective. Enjoyable afternoon in the midst of horrible February weather.