Goodness knows how many productions of Midsummer Night's Dream I have seen. It must be well into double figures but until now I had not seen an all male version.

We know that in Shakespeare's day women's parts were played by men or by boys so Propellor's female free productions are I suppose akin to the original instrument movement in music. I wouldn't claim to be an ace at distinguishing a modern instrument from one of its ancestors but I can generally tell the difference between a man and a woman. Not always as my momentary assumption at a recent party that a closely cropped hairstyle atop a tall slim frame should be included in a greeting of hello chaps proved.

But I had no trouble in this show and that's one of its faults I think.  I'm sure that 16th and 17th century theatres strove to make their audiences believe in the femininity of the characters.  They weren't presenting drag acts or pantomime queens.  Here they seemed too obviously male.   

However this is unnecessary carping, and indeed a female with whom I talked about it had no such reservations.  The show was very enjoyable.  Staging and costumes were excellent.  The disposition of actors in every scene and the finely choreographed group movement of the fairies made me weep at the inadequacies of our productions.  The rude mechanicals did the business though they couldn't compete with those I saw at The Globe last summer.

I thought I was going to another all male show tonight at Mathew Bourne's version of Swan Lake so I blinked when the second person on stage was clearly a woman.  But I had got hold of the wrong end of the chromosome. It's the swans that are all male in contrast to the traditional band of birds.  Other cast members are appropriately sexed for their roles.

What can you say about this version of the ballet except that it's wonderful and you just can't believe that anyone else will ever come along to re-imagine it so excitingly.