NOT even a nasty winter cold can hide the excitement in the voice of Jordan Best as she tells me about fairies at the bottom of the garden.

She’s the director of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, coming up at The Q, and tells “CityNews” she’s found “a weird and wonderful cast” for a show that will also feature original music by her AFI award-winning dad, Peter Best.

With left-of-field actors such as Tim Sekuless and Ali McGregor playing the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, and “a crazy, dysfunctional” set of Athenian Mechanicals including Cameron Thomas as Bottom and local actors David Cannell, Brendan Kelly, David Clapham, Liz Bradley and Lachlan Ruffy, she assures: “Don’t worry, the casting works really well”.

What’s more, she has Dave Evans as Puck, Riley Bell and Miriam Miley-Read as Theseus and Hippolyta and a top set of lovers in Jenna Roberts as Helena, Rachel Clapham as Hermia, Chris Zuber as Demetrius and Duncan Driver as Lysander.

While Best is suitably enthusiastic about “most of” Bell Shakespeare’s productions, (her sister Blazey was a Bell star for years) she declares herself “kind of sick of seeing modern Shakespeare with the director’s twist on politics inserted… I just didn’t want to do that – I just wanted to do William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ beautifully”.

Many readers will sympathise. Her fairies are “good” fairies, “not punks with mobiles,” she assures me, explaining that while she did organise a Brazilian-style capoeira fight-dance workshop for them, “for the most part they are laughing, diaphanous, silk-winged, traditional fairies”.

It’s not set in any particular time or place she tells me, though Emma Sekuless’ costume designs owe something to the ‘20s and the fairy costumes are tied in with nature and animals.

So, why is she doing Shakespeare’s “Dream”?

Easy, Best says: “Because it’s awesome, it’s funny and I love the Mechanicals… I’ve played Bottom before, you know.”

And there’s more.

“It’s got fantastic parts for women,” she says. “It’s got great insults like, ‘thou painted maypole’; it’s not too long and it’s so funny that it’s accessible to everyone.”

It worries Best that some people seem to be scared by Shakespeare.

“They think it’s high art, but really it’s not, it’s just really good stories,” she says.

Best of all, her six-year-old son William will be able to enjoy the Mechanicals, lovers and fairies.

Yes, all the sexual innuendo is still there, but it’s all clean. “As trite as it may sound, it’ll be fun for the whole family,” she says.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, The Q, July 24-August 13, bookings to 6285 6290 or theq.net.au