Midsummer! – Assembly ★★★★★

Every nation seems determined to claim Shakespeare as its own. The English insist he belongs to them by birthright. Europe continually reinvents him through radical reinterpretation. Based on Carnegie Mellon University’s astonishing production of Midsummer!, North America has a strong claim of its own.Director Kim Weild describes stories as travellers, crossing oceans, generations and borders before returning home carrying something new. This production feels like precisely that sort of journey. Shakespeare crosses the Atlantic, picks up Appalachian folklore, queer liberation and Pittsburgh industry like stamps in a well-worn passport, before arriving in Edinburgh renewed and gloriously alive.What immediately strikes you about Jeff Whitty’s adaptation is its respect for Shakespeare’s verse. Too often modernisations either preserve the language at the expense of clarity or sacrifice the poetry entirely. Whitty, best known for Avenue Q, finds the sweet spot between the two. Words are…