Abstract
The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was.Taking its cue from Bottom's most rare vision, this chapter addresses its subject through two types of neurodiverse engagements with Shakespeare in performance. The first is the Relaxed Performance, wherein theatre organizations facilitate access to mainstream performances by creating autism-friendly environments. The chapter examines the examples of this practice offered by Shakespeare's Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company, considering how Shakespeare sits within a Relaxed Performance landscape that is generally skewed towards children's theatre and populist forms such as the West End musical, and situating it within current conversations around audience etiquette and the politics of inclusion.This is contrasted with the work of Flute Theatre, a company that creates Shakespeare with, rather than for, autistic young people though a participatory and interactive game format. It recognizes autism as difference rather than deficit, and the potential of neurodiverse Shakespeare to creatively interweave the familiar with the strange, sound with vision and taste with touch, and reality with dreams.