Theater Review - From the
front row
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Gutherie Theater, Minneapolis, MN: seen May 16th, 2008
by Raymond Luczak
Of the most performed
plays in Shakespeare’s canon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
is high on the list. It’s all about unrequited love and its
many disguises. According to Wikipedia, it appears that Shakespeare
may have been writing this play as a lighthearted anecdote while
working on the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. To simplify its overcomplicated
story, involving ever-changing alliances and desires, for those who’ve
never read or seen the play at least once in its many adaptations:
Four days before the wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta (otherwise
known as Queen of the Amazons), two couples run away from their parents
to a forest led by the fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania. The
two couples fall for the other couple’s half thanks to Puck,
by far the play’s most memorable character and certainly one
of Shakespeare’s most Dionysusian characters. He easily causes
such havoc by rubbing a powerful love potion onto the sleeper’s
eyes which causes the sleeper, upon awakening, to fall in love with
the first living thing he or she sees. This provides for a particularly
comic moment when Titania awakens to see the vainglorious bad actor
Bottom, played by Stephen Pelinski, transformed as an ugly ass for
the first time, and even funnier when she begs to kiss his face.
Yet, one has to wonder how the audience would feel if the ass was
not a donkey but a disabled person, say, with cerebral palsy; as
we all know, not all disabled people can fit into most able-bodied
people’s definitions of beauty, whatever they may be.
Of all the Guthrie productions that I’ve seen by Joe Dowling,
Dream truly works on many levels. Yes, it’s gleefully over-the-top
and filled with all sorts of pop cultural references, but in the
world of fairies, literally anything goes. The fairy costumes designed
by Paul Tazwell were pure eye candy, and the Rorschach blob-inspired
set by Frank Hallinan Flood allowed for a fluid sense of staging,
an easier shift from reality into the fantastic world of fairies.
The huge cauldron-like ball that opened up like a clam to reveal
a lavish boudoir was truly extravagant, a boudoir fitting for the
queen, played with aplomb by Emily Swallow. There were moments when
the fairies decked out in their full splendor prancing about made
me feel as if I was watching Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music-free
version of Cats on acid.
The production had a few standout performances: Erin Cherry as the
First Fairy was amazing to watch in the few moments when she made
her presence felt; Valeri Mudek was delightful and funny as Helena,
torn between two men who’ve fallen in love with her (thanks
to Puck’s sly mischievous potion), and the one she wants; and
Randy Reyes as Frank Flute nearly stole the show in the play-within-the-play
in which he and a group of truly bad actors, featuring the pompously
overacting Bottom, present an amateurish playlet in honor of the
Duke and Hippolyta’s wedding. Randy Reyes is a fine comic actor.
Most of the performers in this production were graduates of the University
of Minnesota Guthrie’s BFA Program and Guthrie’s summer
program, as well as those who had been in the theater’s 1997
production. I have not seen such a show that brimmed with so much
vitality as this one, and the mix of experienced actors and young
upstarts surely helped that energy.
Due to the complexity and cast size of this show, three American
Sign Language (ASL) interpreters were used: Patty Gordon, Tammy A.
Hansen, and Nancy Niggley. They all wore jackets or dresses that
were more festive than usual; this worked very well with the exception
of Ms. Hansen, who wore an orange-flavored dress that provided insufficient
contrast against her skin. While the ASL translation was superb overall,
the richness of Ms. Gordon and Ms. Niggley’s character work
showed how much more Ms. Hansen can improve, in terms of varying
her rhythm and facial expressions, especially when she interpreted
Puck. However, I do applaud the Guthrie for including an interpreter
of color, as we truly need to see more minorities involved in theater.
And once again, the ASL Interpreted Show Program is exemplary; it
provided a face picture for each of the actors playing important
characters and indicated which interpreters would translate which
characters. This helped keep track of who’s who on stage.
On a separate note, I disconcertedly learned from a wheelchair patron
that while the theater does provide an accessible bathroom, it had
taken her more than 15 minutes to visit the facilities and get back
to her seat, which is longer than most intermissions. I was rather
surprised and very disappointed because the theater is very new.
No one seemed to have thought about the logistics of time for such
wheelchair patrons, particularly if the show is longer than three
hours. It is my hope that the Guthrie can find a way to streamline
the amount of time required. For instance, the elevator next to the
area set aside for wheelchair users shouldn’t necessitate looking
around for someone with a card to operate it during intermission.
That said, if you haven’t seen this production, go see the
fairies and laugh. You’ll come out of the theater with buoyant
smiles plastered across your face. ![end of story bullet]()
Editor’s note: Editor’s
Note: Access Press is pleased to have author and playwright
Raymond Luczak as a regular theater reviewer. Mr. Luczak www.raymondluczak.com will
be reviewing an ASL-interpreted plays the heading “From
the front row.”
