A Midsummer Night's Dream exposes bestial urges

Gradually it becomes apparent that the action is the reliving, as in a dream, of the adolescence of Theseus. Caning, roasting and cigarettes (symbolic of innocence corrupted) loom large in his schooltime memories. A king, of course, has to have a queen, but this Theseus is struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation. His younger self, or alter ego, is Puck, longing vainly to be the favourite of Oberon, King of the Fairies, who has his own preferred changeling boy.

The genius of Alden's production, enhanced by Charles Edwards's aptly sombre sets, lit expertly by Adam Silverman, lies in its grasp of Britten's intuition that the spell of the Shakespearean fairy world is far from benign. Not only is that obvious from the spectral quality of the scoring - well brought out by Leo Hussain's conducting - but the homoerotic undercurrents of Britten's works are now common knowledge. Utterly compelling rather than traditionally magical, Alden's production shines a light on the dark forest of sexual urges.

The true import of those famous slithering harmonies is neatly hinted at. The quartet of lovers, superbly sung by Allan Clayton, Tamara Gura, Benedict Nelson and Kate Valentine, are prone to pubertal crotch-grabbing. But beneath that, something darker lies, and the transformation of Bottom (a saturnine Willard White) into an ass is the cue for an unleashing of primal instincts.

The preparations for the Rustics' play draw few laughs, while the comedy of the play itself, which incorporates bestiality, is deeply subversive.

Peter Van Hulle's Snout gesticulates obscenely at the royal party, ensconced in a Coliseum box, while Jonathan Veira's Quince has a similarly sinister edge. A vocally indisposed Iestyn Davies acted the part of Oberon, which was sung from another box by the excellent William Towers. Jamie Manton supplies a coarse, sexually thwarted Puck.

The painful body language of Paul Whelan as the emotionally repressed Theseus, speaks volumes.

Until Jun 30 (0871 911 0200, eno.org)

English National Opera: A Midsummer Night's Dream
London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES