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How to make Shakespeare accessible to a young audience? Cut out the tricky bits or throw them headfirst into the original? Co-directors Rachel Bagshaw and Robin Belfield have gone for a bit of both. This is a tightly trimmed version of the Bard’s romantic comedy with the original language intact. Playful captions have been fully integrated into the design and slapstick comedy woven throughout. It’s fun in fits and starts, although, like so many of the characters in this woozily magical play, it feels caught between two worlds.

This is the Unicorn’s first major co-production with the RSC and it feels like the start of a brilliant venture, still finding its feet. Belfield’s editing is smart but could have been more radical. The framing story in Athens – lots of complicated business with dukes and betrothals – has been cut down but not excised, which only makes it harder to understand.

The magical elements are kept low-key and gently engaging. Titania’s fairies are conjured up using childlike voiceovers, Holly Khan’s delicate soundscape and Will Monks’ entrancing word projections, which dance lightly about Lily Arnold’s arts-and-crafts-like set. Joséphine-Fransilja Brookman’s Puck wears bunches in her hair and feels like an impish schoolkid as she climbs up balconies, jumps on tyre swings and happily causes mischief.

The most lucid and enjoyable scenes are those with the rude mechanicals as they rehearse their (terrible) play. There’s a whiff of the CBeebies panto to these encounters, with the actors dressed in neon costumes and delivering their gags with gusto. The hard-working ensemble jump from playing heartsick lovers to hammy actors with real aplomb. Boni Adeliyi is excellent as the spurned Helena; dignified in her sorrow yet, minutes later, fully committed to her role as a very silly and skittish moon.

The standout star is Emmy Stonelake as Bottom. She’s a natural comic and talented Shakespearean, raising big laughs but never at the cost of the language. When Bottom is turned into a donkey, complete with huge floppy ears, Stonelake cries out: “This is to make an ass of me!” and is met with big laughs and heavy sighs. Her performance is all that works best here: Shakespeare made easy but carefully layered and effortlessly moving too.

• At the Unicorn theatre, London, until 10 May.