Through Sun 10/27
Need a laugh or two? Come to the Hanna before it’s too late.
This Great Lakes Theater production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream should tempt even jaded, experienced Shakespeare lovers into venturing into Oberon’s magic realm once again. Luck, love, and acting triumph in this wonder world.
Director Sara Bruner and her excellent accomplices (cast and crew all) wove soap opera (love/hate relationships) with comic farce (adventures in the woods) to create a refreshing romp into a world that never was.
Great Lakes chose a new take on Shakespeare’s classic, this one translated by Jeff Whitty (who wrote Avenue Q). Whitty’s version neither mangles the original nor turns it into a word circus. The result? Raucous laughs.
Why? Because now we get all the jokes — bawdy though a few may be. It’s easy to imagine — some perched in box seats, others part of the semi-drunken rabble below — laughing at this play, which finds the funny in society, royalty, magic, and (especially) acting.
Who isn’t nervous before a wedding? When the play begins, Theseus, Duke of Athens (played with royal poise by Derek Garza), is engaged to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons (a proud Jessie Cope Miller). Theseus certainly seems on edge.
Later, when the “Dream” world in the forest becomes reality, the same two actors transform into new characters. Garza turns into Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Cope becomes Titania, his wife and Queen. Oberon commands Puck (a marvelously mischievous Joe Wegner) to humiliate Titania.
When things don’t go exactly as planned, one imagines Puck saying, “Do it yourself. Who am I to perfectly carry out Your Majesty’s wishes?” While Puck can’t actually go on strike, since he’s Oberon’s slave, Wegner’s character gets his own with comic applications and misapplications of orders. (One imagines many a wage slave in Shakespeare’s time laughing and wishing to do the same.)
Puck turns a simple weaver Bottom (Nick Steen) into a donkey who brays with the best — at least enough to enchant Titania at first sight. Oberon delights in watching her foolishness with her new crush. (Oberon’s not very nice, but when she wakes up he’ll always have to wonder if he lives up to her dream man.)
Meanwhile, a quartet of teens — all at the age when one is busy falling in love — also venture into the midsummer’s magic forest. The handsome Lysander (Benjamin Michael Hall) is in love with the pretty Hermia (Angela Utrera). Statuesque Demetrius (Domonique Champion) is also in love with Hermia, and neither notices nor cares that Helena (Royer Bockus) is in love with him. Bockus is especially hilarious as Helena whines and pouts like a lovesick high school nerd. (Maybe because it’s easy for some of us to identify with? Maybe so.)
This Midsummer Night’s Dream concluded with a fitting happy event that showed the best “bad acting” ever. Mishaps galore marred the “play within a play” put on by the commoners to celebrate the royal wedding. The hilarious error-prone troupe included Jeffrey C. Hawkins (as Quince, a carpenter); M.A. Taylor (as Snout); Nic Hermick (as Flute, a bellows-mender); Jaedynn Latter (as Snug, a joiner); Boe Wank (Starveling the tailor), and Steen (as Bottom, now returned to normalcy).
Scenic designer Courtney O’Neill, lighting designer Trad A. Burns, composer and sound designer Paul James Prendergast, and costume designer Mieka van der Ploeg helped scenes (and imaginations) quickly shift from royal palace to dark woods. Others contributing to the magic include Jaclyn Miller, Lue Douthit, Nicki Cathro, and Christina M. Woolard.
Bottom Line: Comedy only makes us laugh when we can understand it. The Great Lakes Theater company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as “translated,” (the pentameter remains) is a roaring success — even for academics and English majors (and yes, I’m talking about me). It’s a testimony to a new company called Play On Shakespeare. (For more information about their project to respectfully translate Shakespeare’s dramas see this site.