Riley Shanahan, Jeanne Syquia, and Kasey Mahaffy in A Noise Within’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ [Craig Schwartz]
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with its fairies and love potions, along with a mix of plots and subplots, might give one the idea that this is light storytelling, with a few sight gags, songs and pratfalls tossed in.
Au contraire, mon frere.
“Midsummer…” is a complicated and twisting tale with at least three major plotlines running through the play under and through the main narrative.
Very quickly: There is the planned wedding of Theseus (Zach Kenney), the Duke of Athens. There is Hermia, (Erika Soto) an aristocrat’s daughter with two suitors, neither of whom quite line up with everyone’s desires. The daughter chooses to run away with the one she loves,and mentions this to her home girl, Helena (Jeanne Syquia), who is also in love with one of the suitors.
In a nearby forest, of course, another plot hatches, as Oberon (also Kenney) cooks up a confusing plan with his servant Puck (Kasey Mahaffy), that involves love potion in the eyes and jump starts the naturally ensuing confusion.
Meanwhile, a group of local tradesmen are happily rehearsing a play they hope to perform at Theseus’ wedding. They too will be swept up into the twisted tale.
Stir up the love potion, add confusing desires and identities, and toss in the mischievous fairy Puck, and we are off and running.
Co-directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, describe the story thusly, “When we start off, there is a great deal of conflict, everything is out of whack. As the characters come together, in the forest, they—and we—get to see everything in a whole new way and be changed by it. The characters, and even the forest itself, find a kind of alignment.”
Unlike many of his other plays, in the case of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Shakespeare uses a sometimes confusing mix of rhymed verse, along with iambic pentameter—an unrhyming blank verse—and prose, to create a swirling blitz of paeans and ideas on the subject of love. And more confusing plot lines.
To make matters worse, many of the lines could easily have been written for Yoda, along with Oberon, Hermia, Titania (Trisha Miller), and the rest. Essentially, many of the lines are constructed backwards.
It’s to the actors’ credit that the story unfolds with only a little confusion, as the medieval dialogue is helped along with just the right inflection and modern comedic gestures. Mahaffy as Puck, and Soto as Hermia, are particularly effective at this.
Also helping the story and pace along are the clever production devices and lighting ideas by scenic designer Frederica Nascimiento and lighting designer Ken Booth. Think handheld flood lights and clouds, and just a soupçon of Cirque du Soleil.
The simple stage is transformed many times over from misty field to sleepy meadow to palatial home, with just some simple but smart staging.
The overall production is enchanting and rife with the twists and turns of love. In Rodriguez-Elliott’s and Elliott’s hands, what has been called Shakespeare’s “undoubted masterwork,” a classic, if confusing, tale comes to life with grace and aplomb.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through November 12, at A Noise Within Theatre, 3352 East Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena, CA. (626) 356-3121. www.anoisewithin.org.
