There is a great deal of joy in Liam Scarlett’s deliciously funny, sensual A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And – always – a great deal of sadness that his life was so short.

Yesterday, April 16, was the third anniversary of his death. He was just 35 and the maker of many one-act works for major companies along with important full-length ballets including Frankenstein (for the Royal Ballet and San Francisco Ballet), Swan Lake (a huge hit for the Royal Ballet) and Dangerous Liaisons (QB and Texas Ballet Theatre).

Scarlett’s attraction to dark themes was evident in many of his works. The comic A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015) was therefore in some senses an outlier, and a delightful one. It strips away Shakespeare’s framing narrative involving the marriage of royal couple Theseus and Hippolyta and dives straight into the fairy world. 

The first act sets things up – Titania and Oberon fight over possession of a Changeling, mortals with their own personal issues invade the fairy lair, rustics bumble about, Oberon instructs Puck to meddle in everyone’s affairs and Puck’s indiscriminate use of magic love dust stuffs things up. Curtain.

The second half is the pay-off. It’s where Scarlett brings to delirious life the madness that strikes everyone on this midsummer night and brings it to rapturous resolution. Chaos and foolishness reign and then calm is restored. Who doesn’t want to see that?

Tracy Grant Lord’s set design, supported by Kendall Smith’s exceptional lighting, provides Scarlett with a sumptuous playground, an ornate multi-level affair that evokes a dense tree canopy and allows the fairies to dart in and out of view. (I’m stealing here from my 2016 review of Dream.) Her costumes are striking too, with adorably fluffy tutus in saturated colours for the fairies and sportif day wear for the mortals, who have come equipped with tents, searchlights, nets and the rustics for backup. They are on a fairy safari. Bless.

There isn’t a superfluous or anonymous character on stage. Each darting, amused fairy and bumbling, open-hearted rustic is as important to the comedy as the principals and soloists. At the performance I saw this season, the fourth in a run of 17 shows, Laura Toser and Joel Woellner looked wonderful in Scarlett’s intricate, swirling, extremely sexy choreography. Toser was like gossamer and Woellner smooth as silk in his sweeping solos. Ivan Surodeev was the cheerfully bouncy Puck, revelling in the bravura and careless charm the role asks for.

A quite different kind of charm is required of Bottom (Vito Bernasconi in this cast), who is initially the simple fellow leading a large group of other uncomplicated souls and then the ardent, if unconventional, suitor of Titania when turned into an ass. Scarlett sails fairly close to the wind here in terms of taste but Toser and Bernasconi found the sweet spot.

The four mortal lovers bring with them not only abundant comedy but also longing, confusion, regret and, finally, reconciliation, all beautifully realised by Tuesday’s quartet of Neneka Yoshida (Hermia), Vanessa Morelli (Hermia), Alexander Idaszak (Lysander) and Ari Thompson (Demetrius), the last attractively less caddish than in the usual portrayal of the disdainful Athenian.

Adding greatly to the pleasure is the score, an arrangement of the much-loved Mendelssohn incidental music for Shakespeare’s play, augmented by arranger Nigel Gaynor with selections from other Mendelssohn works. For this season Gaynor, QB’s music director, conducts Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. 

It’s impossible to see any ballet version of Dream without thinking of Frederick Ashton’s one-act ballet The Dream, last staged by The Australian Ballet only seven months ago. Ashton’s is a sublime distillation of Shakespeare’s play in just one hour. Scarlett’s first act lasts as long and includes some over-long solos and pas de deux, lovely in themselves but holding back the action a little. 

Scarlett’s full-length ballets are, not unfairly, open to the charge of being too overloaded but it’s a quibble as far as Dream is concerned. Overall it is just what Shakespeare ordered: funny, sensual, touching and memorable.

Scarlett made his Dream in 2015 on the artists of Royal New Zealand Ballet, co-producer of the ballet with QB. After first performing it the following year QB has since presented it several times in Brisbane as well as taken it to regional Queensland, Melbourne and Canberra. The current season undoubtedly won’t be the last time it is revived.

After the success of Dream QB invited Scarlett to become associate artist, a role he held from 2017-2020. Unusually, QB still has Scarlett in its artistic team list on its website, noting the date of an appointment that ended four years ago.

In August 2019 Scarlett was accused of sexual misconduct by The Royal Ballet. He left the Royal and planned performances of his works were dropped by a number of companies including QB. (RNZB continued with its plans to revive A Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

In a statement on January 30, 2020, QB said: “Queensland Ballet has suspended all future engagements with Liam Scarlett pending the results of that investigation. This includes the 2020 Melbourne Tour of Dangerous Liaisons.” (QB instead performed Swan Lake.)

An inquiry by the Royal later that year found “no matters to pursue” against Scarlett but the damage was done. Scarlett took his own life in April 2021.

In a statement after Scarlett’s death then QB artistic director Li Cunxin said: “Although various media outlets have reported that Queensland Ballet broke ties with Liam, this was never the case. As was true for many companies around the world, our challenge at this difficult time was communication with Liam … As of April 2021, the relationship between QB and Liam was a positive one, as we were in communication regarding ongoing rights to the beautiful ballets that are adored by our dancers and audiences alike.”

After Scarlett’s death QB’s associate choreographer Jack Lister wrote on behalf of his colleagues that “working with him was truly a creative exchange built on mutual trust and respect. You felt inspired, not self-conscious. You were empowered, privileged and alive. Any amount of time with Liam was sustenance for many of us … We love you Liam.”

In 2015 I interviewed Scarlett in Wellington, New Zealand, about A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his wider career. We talked about his diary or, as he described it, “the little squares” that were increasingly mapping out his life way, way into the future.

“It terrifies me sometimes,” he said. “I have no idea what else I’ll be doing in four years but this square says I’ll be doing this. And there’s something in 2020 … there are things I don’t want to say no to. Opportunities come.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream ends on April 27.