Don't fool yourselves, mortals. This classic play never gets old

The former Canberran was a young drama student at Lyneham High School, and this film had quite the cast.

Kevin Kline was Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer was Titania, Rupert Everett handsome as ever as Oberon, Stanley Tucci played Puck with pointy elf-like ears. Throw in Calista Flockhart, Christian Bale, Dominic West, Sophie Marceau and David Strathairn, and you can see why the teenager who dreamed of one day being on stage was instantly hooked.

"Coincidentally, it was also the first play I saw being performed live," she says. "After Lyneham, I went to Dickson College and that's where I started studying Shakespeare in more depth. Our year 11 drama teacher was appearing as Demetrius and so a whole bunch of my school friends and I went to see him perform."

Now Burton is appearing in the play herself, appearing in the Bell Shakespeare adaptation of the classic story, alongside British-Australian actor Richard Pyros who recently appeared in the hit television series The Great, and Maori actor Matu Ngaropo, known for this recent role as George Washington in the Australian version of the Broadway sensation Hamilton.

Burton, now 27 and living in Sydney, loves that Bell Shakespeare heads to regional venues, alongside the major cities, perhaps giving people, particularly young people, their first taste of Shakespeare.

"And Midsummer Night's Dream is a great introductory play for young people, or anyone who hasn't seen much Shakespeare," she says.

"While the language can be confronting for first timers ... Don't be concerned about understanding every single line, every single word ... I think it's more about the sense of the imagery, and if we're doing our jobs well, we'll give you a sense of how they feel, how they're expressing themselves, and just let the language flow over you, just submit to the wave."

Even though it's three storylines in one - you've got the young lovers escaping Athens, the "mechanicals" putting on their own play, and the magical world of fairies - A Midsummer Night's Dream explores themes we're all familiar with, ones of love and loss of identity.

"It's a play that can be different every time you see it," says Burton.

"That's what's great about Shakespeare. Yes, the plays have been around for 400 years, but because there's so much material and the language is so great, for theatre makers and actors there's always so much to flesh out.

"No matter how many times you've done this play, the next time it could be completely different."

That said, A Midsummer Night's Dream, even if we've never seen it as Shakespeare intended, is one play that often feels familiar.

We might have seen a school performance and laughed at the classmate playing Bottom, or heard of the opera or ballet version of it, or know that Uranus' three moons, Oberon, Titania and Puck, are named after its characters.

Allegedly, Die Hard director John McTiernan changed the storyline of the Bruce Willis film from taking place over three nights in Nakatomi Plaza, to just one, after being inspired by Midsummer's single-night plot line.

And who can forget the heart-breaking twist in the 1989 Robin Williams' film Dead Poets Society when Neil (played by Robert Sean Leonard) performs in the play against his domineering father's wishes?

But this familiarity can be something of a problem, says Bell Shakespeare artistic director Peter Evans.

"The problem you've got selling A Midsummer Night's Dream is that people feel like they've seen it before," he says.

"They might associate it with a school production, or they think they've seen it in the gardens somewhere outside, they think, why would I want to see it again?

"But this one's been somewhat surprising, it's been selling really well.

"I wanted to make something that was still ridiculous and fun. It's very silly in a lot of places, but I wanted to tweak it and this version is a little darker.

"It's a more sophisticated play than people sometimes give it credit for."

That said, he says it's still very family friendly.

"My young daughter was in the rehearsal room quite a lot and I asked her once if she thought it was funny and she said 'Everyone is so cross with each other' and I laughed, realising it is all about unrequited love. The comedy comes because everybody is confused and angry with each other.

"It's designed to be for every age group, and so far it's proved to be that. It's brought me great joy that the school performances have been very successful."

Evans is always thinking about ways to take Shakespeare to the people.

"I was talking to the actor Robert Menzies, during our rehearsals for King Lear, I've worked with him a lot, and he said something that really resonated.

"He said someone was asking him, why Shakespeare? And he said - to use a kind of computer metaphor - it has more pixels than anything else. "I think that's a really good description of it - it's so dense and so rich.

"There's so much going on, and it really rewards the work you put into it, as an artist, but also as an audience. It's why people keep coming back and back, is that there's so much to mine in it.

"The thing that makes it so tricky is what makes it so special."