Just as Peter Quince and his players struggle to represent a wall, moonlight, and a lion for their production of Pyramus and Thisbe, the Actors’ Shakespeare Project and director Benjamin Evett has attempted to turn A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s fecund Green World of fairies, sprites, herb lore, and unreason into something a little more believable to modern audiences. For Act II, where Shakespeare’s action changes to a wood outside of Athens, a 1980s-looking urban punk dystopia is unveiled; a disembowelled yellow Bug with undercarriage lighting, graffiti (by PROBLACK and in collaboration with Artists for Humanity), a TV sticking out of an oil drum, and a stage-space littered with trash bags and soda cans. The forest, as a symbol of spirituality and transformation and home to pagan immortals, certainly held more clout in Shakespeare’s time than ours, and so it is apt to adapt it into some kind of more relevant and recognizable arena of change and the unknown. Unfortunately, this particular street punk world looks like a haunt of Shredder and his cronies from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). Even though it’s an update, it felt more dated to me than Diane Paulus’ Studio 54 reincarnation. But, I still liked it.
ASP succeeds in extending and twisting Shakespeare’s original use of class humor in the dramatic fumblings and malapropisms of Quince, Bottom, and the other mortal non-nobles. With the play’s two pairs of well-born and comically idealistic lovers tossed into a dark streetscape, we get a reverse class humor that pokes fun at the nobles. These yuppies are at the whim of a punked out Oberon and Puck (above), who, although they desire to provide resolution, do enjoy (as we do) watching the confusion unfold. Like Bottom, ascended to the immortal perspective of Titania’s “flowery bed” (but too stupid to realize it), we are offered the immortal vista. Seated intimately in-the-round along two perpendicular sides of the stage-space as we watch the lovers’ transformation unfold, Titania’s minions, Puck, or some member of the spirit world always seems to be watching along with us.
John Kuntz (as Peter Quince), Robert Walsh (as Bottom) & Lenise Farrier (as Snout)
The play is peppered with modern pop-cultural reference, some clever and fitting and some that would better belong to an improv show, rather than a serious production, e.g. John Kuntz (Peter Quince) singing a phrase of that African chant from The Lion King. Kuntz is hilarious as a scarved theatre director with his latte-fetching assistant Snout (Lenise Farrier). Robert Walsh (Bottom) steals most of the laughs, as Bottom really does have the best material. Walsh not only rocks out Bottom’s song “The finch, the sparrow and the lark…,” but plays air guitar to it. Maurice Emmanuel Parent nails his take on Puck, delivering his lines with a great sense of the poetry, an asinine comic flamboyance, and even a creepy menacing darkness. Curt Klump takes on an off-beat regality as Theseus that I didn’t really get, where Michael Kaye’s aloofness, as the grand supernatural interloper Oberon, shines.
For most, The Taming of the Shrew‘s Katherina is the biggest blemish on Shakespeare’s rap sheet as far as sexism goes, but I think Titania can even be a greater problem for modern productions looking to avoid the misogyny some read into Shakespeare. Even in the supernatural world men seem to have their say. Titania’s powers are trumped by Oberon’s and she’s fooled into an embarrassing crush and “taught a lesson.” Marianna Bassham’s Titania (below), despite the actual language of the play, is a strong and sometimes even severe character here, and perhaps that’s partly due to her intimidating appearance and wild Nancy Spungen delivery. Sexism doesn’t come into play as far as Helena is concerned, as the vertices of this love-square aren’t meant to be taken seriously anyways. Jennie Israel delivers as the spurned lover in a modern take on the insecure Helena that’s probably the most modern and recognizable (to contemporary audiences) character in the production.
Marianna Bassham (as Titania), Robert Walsh (as Bottom) & Sabrina Saint Louis (as Peaseblossom)
Act V is dragged on for a little longer than I would have liked with some excessive slapstick and a Slumdog Millionaire style dance sequence. We do see the set finally go green–an interesting touch. There’s also a cool take on the device of the plot resolution that, when begun by Puck at the end of Act III, is actually rather violent. The production can’t seem decide whether it’s dark and menacing or ultra-comic, teasing out every possible sexual innuendo in the text. But perhaps it doesn’t need to, because we do get some solid local Shakespeareans performing both readings; reaching for AMND‘s sense of self-parody, burlesque tragedy, mystery, and portentous natural disorder.
Check out Gareth Hinds’ sketches of the show.
Actors’ Shakespeare Project‘s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Midway Studios, 15 Channel Center St., through January 24th. Tickets: $25-$47.
