IS A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM “NOT A VERY GOOD PLAY”?

IS A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM “NOT A VERY GOOD PLAY”? I saved a review in the March 5 2010 Times Literary Supplement which Juliet Fleming begins by asking: “Could it be that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not a very good play?” I saved the review to think about because I take it as given that Shakespeare can do no wrong, that all his plays are good. I have done some research, and to my surprise Judith Fleming is not the first to question the play. Anne Barton in the Riverside Shakespeare quotes Samuel Pepys in his diary: “the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.” Barton continues: “…condescension to the comedy as a matter of gossamer and moonshine, a charming trifle to be eked out theatrically by as much music and spectacle as possible, dominated both the criticism and the stage representations of this play from the Restoration until the second half of the twentieth century.” So when I saw the play for the first time in the Peter Brook production (the one with the trapezes), the play’s merits were just being discovered after centuries of neglect.