Tomahawk Theatre Company’s outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream invites the obvious criticism that a play so suited to a sylvan setting is instead being performed in a paved courtyard with nary a tree in sight. But let’s not carp: if lovelorn Helena (Imogen O’Sullivan) can fashion a heaven from hell in her pursuit of the amorously disinclined Demetrius (Jack Powell), then we can surely conjure an Athenian wood from a backdrop as seemingly antipathetic as the austere walls of a former prison.

It’s all a matter of stage magic — which Dream, of course, supplies in buckets. Here we can even accept “my gentle Puck” (Joseph Adams) as a tartan-trousered tough nut as likely to dispense a Glasgow kiss as fairy potions, and elves Cobweb (Chloe Orrock) and Peaseblossom (Ella Graham) in Doc Martens.

Under the zippy direction of Alex Nicholls, what may be considered the three great comic set pieces of the play are there to delight anew.

In the order of their occurrence these are the love scene in the fairy bower between the deluded Titania (Anna Glynn) and the gormless Bottom (the excellent Adam Potterton) in his ass’s head, the ructions between Helena and Hermia (Eve Winterbottom) — a ding-dong to rival that of Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest — and the closing Pyramus and Thisbe play.

The last is especially well managed. Bottom and Chris Gladwin’s Flute are super in the title roles, but there are hilarious contributions, too, from Ivo Gruev’s deliciously petulant Starveling/Moonshine and David Guthrie’s Snug/Lion. Peter Quince, ostensibly in control of proceedings, is here transformed, with great success, into Mrs Quince (Ida Persson). It was unfortunate that one of her key speeches at Monday’s opening was lost in unequal combat with a helicopter.

Voice projection in a large and rather difficult performance area is on the whole commendable. Kieran Chambers’s Lysander and Craig Finlay’s Theseus/Oberon supply an especially clear take on the peerless poetry.

Music from guitarists Francisco Verae and Sebastian Perez — sometimes in freaky electronic vein — adds greatly to the success of the evening.

Until July 16. For tickets call 01865 305305 or go to the website (www.ticketsoxford.com).