Hamburg Ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream Cultural Centre Grand Theatre February 12-13 The last chilly whisperings of winter might have been delivering shivers outside, but in the Grand Theatre it was balmy midsummer; a time to dream.

And dream we did, swept away by John Neumeier's ambitious staging of the Bard's densely-layered tale. Here is a choreographer at the height of his powers - his effortless ranging from classical grand pas de deux (albeit with his tongue slightly in his cheek) to writhing modern mayhem could easily have come over as a messy, silly hodge-podge in the hands of a lesser artist. But Neumeier - who perhaps more than any other choreographer successfully fuses the dance and literary worlds - guides us with assurance and a finely-honed sense of humour through Shakespeare's most-loved comedy, from its bedroom-farce laughs to its exploration of the nature of illusion and reality.

Following the play faithfully in the main, the action spans the aristocratic court of Theseus, Duke of Athens, on the eve of his wedding to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, the misty sylvan glade ruled by the magical Oberon and Titania, and the ham-fisted, well-meaning world of the mechanicals.