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| Sam Roberts and Kelsey Ion. Photo by Bob Morrison. |
By Tina Arth
Valentine’s Day is the ideal time to open Shakespeare’s
classic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
– a show where love is in the air everywhere: a dose of magic helps four
couples find love, while a fifth couple dies tragically, but happily does so
within the bounds of an absurdly comic play-within-a-play. The decision by
directors Tyson Redifer and Chris White to present a story set in ancient
Athens with a pervasive steampunk motif was risky, but on the whole it works
surprisingly well; rather than interfering with the coherence of the play, the
set design, costumes, lighting and sound actually serve to clarify elements of
the Bard’s absurdly convoluted story.
How convoluted? Well, start with the impending marriage of
Theseus, Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, former queen of the Amazons. Add in
Egeus and his disobedient daughter Hermia, who is determined to marry Lysander
but has been promised to Demetrius. Want more? OK – there’s the frustrated
Helena, who is Hermia’s best friend and madly in love with Demetrius, who only
has eyes for Hermia. For reasons that really don’t gel completely, Helena
attempts to curry favor with Demetrius by revealing to him that Hermia and
Lysander plan to meet in the forest and run off together. Of course, the forest
is filled with magical fairies and their own drama – in particular, the
estrangement between Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, over
Titania’s refusal to cede her ward, an Indian changeling, to Oberon as his special
henchman. Oberon conspires with the spritely Puck to use a potion that will
cause Titania to fall in love with the first thing she sees, which turns out to
be Nick Bottom, a foolish actor who has been given (by Puck, naturally) the
head of an ass. Using the same potion, Puck mistakenly causes Lysander to fall
in love with Helena, who thinks he is mocking her with his protestations of
love. Enough? I’ve barely touched on the Mechanicals, a troupe of traveling
actors who hope to perform at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta (remember
them?). Things generally work out OK in Shakespeare’s comedies, and this one is
no exception – by the end of Act 5, we are not only granted three weddings and
a reconciliation, but the Mechanicals get to put on their play!
Mention of Act 5 should give a clue that this is a long show
– 2 hours and 40 minutes, including one intermission. The pacing is fairly
tight, so the show doesn’t drag, and the simplicity of the set plus the
revolving center work well to eliminate lengthy scene changes. In fact, my
biggest problem with the show is just the opposite – some of the cast,
seemingly unfamiliar with the dialogue and rhythms of Shakespeare’s work, spit
out their carefully memorized lines much too fast, making it tough to understand
the words or catch much of the author’s Elizabethan wit. It’s not universal – several of the actors,
including but not limited to Sarah Nolte, Sam Roberts, Kira Smolev, Francis
Kohler, and Kelsey Ion, know exactly what they are doing and how to do it, and
these skilled performers really help to anchor the cast and keep the audience
in the loop.
Humor plays a huge role in keeping the audience engaged, and
there are some really fine moments. Expect a massive dose of physical comedy in
the forest scenes, in particular between Kohler (Lysander), Ion (Helena),
Roberts (Demetrius), and Emma Heesacker (Hermia). The show ends with some huge
laughs for Lucas Ray (Francis Flute) – he’s not terribly memorable in earlier
scenes, but when he goes in drag as the love-stricken Thisbe he is genuinely
hilarious. Scenes between Smolev (Titania) and Frank Robinson (Nick Bottom)
work well, and even when masked he sells his role as a genuine ass.
Credit for sound design is given to Jeremy Ollis, Mike
Stafford, and Leslie Inmon – and their work really enhances the show. The
projection of prerecorded voices is smooth and well handled in the tech booth,
as is the synchronization of light and sound in several key scenes (be warned,
as we were before the show started, that there are some loud noises and bright
flashes of light). Costuming by Kira
Smolev, Karen Schlecht, and Mary Gow is frequently inspired – the contrast
between fairies with their colorfully lighted wings and Athenians in steampunk
finery helps to cleanly distinguish between the real world of Athens and the
magical realm of the fairies, and Robinson’s mask (by Phyllis Lang) provides an
interesting bridge between the two. Smolev and Mark Putnam (Oberon) make full
use of their magnificent capes, which clearly mark them as being well above the
run-of-the-mill fairies, and Sarah Felder is quite memorable in the eye-catching
attire that sets her apart as the mischievous Puck.
In sum, the show is lively and entertaining, but suffers
from some uneven performances – not unusual in community theater, but still
worth noting. Redifer and White’s vision as directors plays out reasonably
well, and they do a respectable job of incorporating the unusual steampunk and
electric elements into the show.
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream is playing at the HART Theatre, 185 SE Washington, Hillsboro through
Sunday, March 1st, with performances Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and
Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
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