Last Sunday I was at the Shotgun Players production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by William Thomas Hodgson, the opening play of the theater's 2024 season. Midsummer Night's Dream is probably the Shakespeare play I have seen staged most often, & I've read it many times (I re-read it just a few weeks ago). & this production made me laugh out loud several times. That's really high praise.
The whole look (scenic design by Sarah Phykitt, costume designs by Ashley Renee as realized by Madeline Berger, if I'm reading the program correctly) is both hodge-podge & sophisticated. The set is a unit, with alcoves & cubbyholes built in, & passageway ramps going up & across, leading down to enough bare space in the front of the stage for fights (sword & verbal) & chases & sweet meet-ups. There are enough natural touches – tufts of foliage, tree trunks with rough bark – to make it plausible as the forest, but enough formal structure to let it pass for an interior in Athens. The costumes are a wild mélange of bright colors & wild patterns, harmonious in their dissonance.
The text is trimmed reasonably, with a few words thrown in to hilarious effect; not to give anything away, but one character starts off her speech with "Bitch, . . ." It was unexpectedly funny, as was the way they riffed on Bottom's inability to get the names of Pyramus & Thisbe correct. The "bergomask" at the end of the mechanicals' play, given in lieu of an epilogue, was a song from Twelfth Night; this journey also ended in lovers' meeting, so it did slide right into context. Egeus is now Hermia's mother instead of father, a change I am all in favor of; the authority there is generational & parental, not necessarily patriarchal. Titania's attendant fairies were, for I think the first time in the stagings I have seen, given distinct personalities, & some had comically negative reactions to the strange ass-headed commoner their mistress is inexplicably enamoured of, whom she had them serving.
Another noteworthy thing about this production, though I feel funny about mentioning it, as it always sounds so patronizing to say it, but clearly it's a point with this production, so here goes: they have a wonderfully open & diverse approach to casting, going beyond race- & gender-blind casting; some of the male characters are androgynous, some of the women are large; nothing is made of this (except for Helena's being taller than Hermia, which is canon), & nothing should be; they're all beautiful embodiments of their characters. Again, it seems condescending to talk about how wonderful that young lovers & heroic warriors look like ordinary people, & making a point of saying it even contributes, in subtle, indirect ways, to reinforcing the traditional standards of casting that are being ignored (in that it makes you conscious of those standards), but it's a good direction to go in, so . . . I mention it.
Such casting wouldn't be much good without strong performers, & the cast is by & large excellent. I was particularly impressed with Rolanda D Bell as Helena; often with productions of Shakespeare you feel they've learned the lines but not in a deep level, but Bell not only read the verse musically, but she spoke it as if it was very naturally the way this character would speak; you could see the shifting psychology underneath the pentameter. I don't know if she's done much Shakespeare (if not, this was particularly impressive) but I hope she continues. I also really liked Oscar Woodrow Harper III as Bottom, who is a character I can easily get enough of, but Harper, who had an inexplicable Southern twang & a bit of Elvis-like swagger, made him quite charming as well as hilarious – you really understood why the other mechanicals felt Bottom was the one man in Athens necessary for their play.
Mentioning those two isn't to slight the rest of the cast, many of whom play multiple roles. All of them give the audience giddy moments. Egeus, mentioned earlier, is played by Susannah Martin, who also plays Quince & Peaseblossom. Her attempts as Quince to rein in the rambunctious Bottom are an amusing echo of her attempts as Egeus to rein in Hermia; this is one of the serendipitous insights you get with such casting (she's also very funny as a Peaseblossom dragooned into serving Bottom, another, more distant, echo of her role as Quince). Aside from Bell as Helena, the quartet of lovers is rounded out with Celeste Kamiya, a lively powerhouse as Hermia (she also plays one of the fairies); she & Helena share some sweet sisterly moments amid the madness. Fenner Merlick is an insinuating Demetrius, just on the right side of shady. At my performance, Lysander was performed by Devin A Cunningham, who was apparently pulled in at something like the last minute, as he had to have a script with him – but he handled that so unobtrusively, & gave such a lively & physical characterization, that not being offbook was not intrusive. So Kudos to him.
Jamin Jollo filled the minor role of Philostrate & the major role of Puck, to which he brought an impish physicality, just on the right side of malicious. Radhika Rao has the traditionally doubled roles of Hippolyta & Titania, & Veronica Renner doubles as Theseus & Oberon, both authoritative in their spheres. Kevin Rebultan (Moth, a different unnamed Fairy, & Flute) was especially good as Thisbe, & Matt Standley (as Snug & Snout) gets more laughs out of less material than I would have thought possible.
My performance was a mask-mandatory matinee. I wonder how long those can continue, given that the majority of the audience was pretty careless about masking. With a few exceptions, they had them on, but often were wearing them incorrectly, were removing them to eat & drink in the theater, took them off during the performance (the young woman next to me had hers entirely off for most of the second act; she may have forgotten to put it back on when she finished her drink). & honestly, I don't see people getting more careful about masking. Either the theater is going to have to start enforcing the rule in a way that will . . . ruffle some feathers? annoy people? not sit well with them? be a burden all around? – or they're going to have to lift the "mandatory" part. I know some people deliberately choose the mask-mandatory performances, but others choose the performance based on date or time or some other factor. Personally, I am fine either way (despite the weird harassment I was subjected to at Shotgun's last play of last season), but I do think that people who are uncomfortable around people who aren't wearing masks are probably, at this point, just not going out at all. But the rule should be either enforced or modified.
Anyway: this season at Shotgun is off to an excellent start with this fresh, inventive, & very funny production. It's been extended to 27 April; go if you can.
(The photograph above is from the outside wall of the Ashby Stage; as usual, the mural changes with each play, & again as usual, it is by graphic artist R.Black)
No comments:
Post a Comment