Shakespeare’s midsummer comedy is an annual fixture at this address – understandably so, since the blend of dreamlike plot, nodding roses and lengthening shadows can prove quite magical. This year’s production comes with a twist, however. The play has been “reconceived” for younger audiences: this means it has been cut, and so, though still delivered in Shakespeare’s words, runs at under two hours. It also has a prologue to explain matters, with Bottom the Weaver giving an outline of the plot.

This is fair enough – there is, after all, a precedent within the play itself, when the mechanicals offer a digest of Pyramus and Thisbe. The difficulty is that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of those plays that resists précis; like a complex joke, the more you explain it, the more complicated it seems to become. And I was unconvinced by the playroom concept for the production, with each of the characters played by a figure from the toy box (Lysander and Demetrius as clockwork soldiers; Hermia and Helena as dolls). While this gives unity and appeals to a child’s understanding, it adds yet another layer to an already intricate piece.

But once the play gets going, this is a good, clear and funny production. It is naturally stronger on the comedy of the transformations in the play than on the workings of the subconscious that they reveal. But the cast’s clarity of diction and bright, open performances make for a vivacious show. Dale Superville’s energetic Bottom appeals particularly to younger children and the six versatile actors slip from one character to another (Nicholas Shaw makes a particularly endearing Lysander).

Dominic Leclerc’s production also gamely brings children from the audience on to the stage to perform small parts. At the press performance, this tactic produced unexpected hilarity when a small boy playing Moonshine upstaged the entire cast with his lantern antics. The cast handled this with such good humour that soon everyone in the audience was laughing. It may not be the perfect Dream, but every child will have left convinced that Shakespeare wrote comedy that can still enchant and inspire today.

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