The two Peters

Sir Peter Hall,a renowned director of Shakespeares plays,has observed that the older you get,the more like yourself you become. At 79,Sir Peter is demonstrating the artfulness of his own adage with a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream which is a concentrated version of his best work: loyal to the text,the verse,the romance and the humour of the play. To bolster Sir Peters case,his fellow director Peter Brook,whom Sir Peter refers to as the stages greatest innovator,is exhibiting his revolutionary credentials at 84 with 11 and 12,a moral tale set in Africa.

Sir Peters star is Dame Judi Dench,the leading lady of the English theatre. It is 47 years since they first worked together on the Dream,and the shared experience illuminates her performance as Titania,the Queen of the Fairies. The verse is spoken with clarity and meaning and her lust is tempered by a mature womans experience and affection. Dame Judis Titania,richly dressed with a wig of flame-red hair,looks like the Virgin Queen herself,as if Elizabeth is appearing as Titania in a court production of the play,a harmless little conceit.

Mr Brook once said of the work of Sir Peters Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s that its ideal was to do good things very well. His own inventive Dream for the RSC in 1970 was one of its finest productions,but he grew restless and left London for Paris,where he was happier as his own impresario,artistic director and dramaturge. He founded the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord,tried to devise a universal language and,when that did not happen,explored theatrical traditions in India and Africa.

11 and 12,set in Mali,is the story of two holy men who call for tolerance when a doctrinal dispute flares into violence and is exploited by French colonists. Everything,including the argument,is stripped down. The stage is decorated with red and yellow cloth; a Japanese musician accompanies the dialogue on drums,xylophone and strings. It is a modern version of a medieval mystery: a good thing done well.