Will they get it? This was the worry of a fellow critic concerning the Chinese audiences at which this excellent Shakespeare’s Globe production is aimed (along with others in Russia) after last week’s warm-up run at Aylesbury Waterside. Would people unfamiliar with this delightful play be able to work out how who is who, never mind who fancies whom, among the four young people lost in the Athenian woods?

Probably not. But this hardly matters in the comic mayhem that follows after the careless Puck (Molly Logan) misapplies his fairy love potions. This turns Lysander (Jamie Chandler) and Demetrius (Philip Correia) hot for the previously unregarded Helena (Beatriz Romilly), while Hermia (Lizzy Watts), hitherto the cynosure of both lads’ eyes, is abruptly abandoned, to her fury.

The quarrelling quartet are of course but one of three principal comic ingredients in this peerlessly poetic piece. Handled every bit as expertly under director Dominic Dromgoole is the revenge of angry fairy king Oberon (Aden Gillet) on his feisty partner Titania (Janie Dee). This results (again thanks to the potion) in her doting on Bottom the Weaver (Trevor Fox). He is replete in this production with a splendid ass’s head which, while it looks very good, somewhat muffles his lines. Since these are delivered in a strong Geordie accent (with occasional departures, I thought, in the direction of Wales), this is a double difficulty in comprehension.

The head is off, though, for his return — presaged by the tap-tap-tap of clogs, as worn by all the dancing mechanicals, and the hilarious Pyramus and Thisbe play. In this there is a fine turn from Steffan Donnelly’s beanpole Flute as the hapless heroine. Music from a three- strong on-stage team (composer Claire van Kampen) makes a vital contribution to the production’s success. So too do the gorgeous period costumes and the set (design Jonathan Fensom) which replicates the look of the Globe.