If you went to the “romeo & juliet” production at Hamline last November, or you just like theater, you will probably like another of Shakespeare’s famous plays: “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.” This enchanting comedy has captivated audiences for over four centuries and is still deemed relevant after all these years.
This production is brought to you by Director Joseph Haj, and his adaptation is not something that you should miss. In his production, he brings in composer Jack Herrick to play his original score live during the performance. With this decision, the ambiance of the play was something you would not have felt with just a simple soundtrack in the background.
Theater enthusiasts know that this play is a hot mess when it comes to the plot, but somehow it still makes sense. This is a play about love: forbidden love, love without a recipient and love with … a donkey. The story is set in Athens and its enchanted forest filled with fairies; it follows the story between four young lovers and a group of inexperienced actors. This is where the chaos starts, where magical love potions and fairies misbehaving take over, causing a romantic and comedic mess. But in the end, everything works out and love prevails.
When the play first opens, Royer Bockus, the actress who plays Helena, breaks the fourth wall and sings to the audience. The song is witty and makes fun of the play, saying it is a play about love. Then, she starts asking the audience how long people have been married and even makes a personal connection with a couple in the audience. Later, at the end of the play, she sang the same melody as when she opened but dedicated the show to the couple from the beginning. It was a great way to introduce the play and get the audience’s attention, and it also helped with establishing a clear end to the play.
The play design was absolutely stunning, with hanging flowers in soft spring colors, the foliage on the large set piece and the large flowers hanging from the catwalk. It felt like walking into a fairytale, with so many details catching your eye at once. The stage was painted to look like a forest floor, and towards the back of the stage, you can see a rotating set piece. This set piece was a large rock formation that created an arch for characters to go under. It also allowed the actors to walk up and down both sides of the rock formation and gave some dimension to the stage.
There is no bad seat in the Wurtele Thrust stage. This stage has 1,100 seats for a stage that is interactive with the audience. It allows the cast to come from the back, through the audience, trap doors and elevators. As their largest stage (seating wise), the tickets were actually very reasonably priced with ticket prices ranging from around $30 to $90, depending on the day, time and where you choose to sit. I was sitting slightly to the left of the stage, in the front row balcony. My partner and I paid around $60 each and we had an amazing view of the play.
This production does have a lot of overstimulating design details along with the movements and music, so there is one night where they have a “relaxed performance.” It is a modified version of the play to help those who may get overstimulated easily. Written on the Guthrie’s website they state this night is for those with “sensory and vestibular sensitivities, anxiety, dementia, autism spectrum disorders, learning differences or challenges attending the theater.” If this is of interest to you, they are putting on this modified production on March 9 at 1 p.m..
I absolutely loved this interpretation of Shakespeare’s play. It was witty, hysterical and visually breathtaking. This play was a little longer than I am used to seeing, but you do not even notice as the actors do such an amazing job in keeping your attention and their fourth wall breaks just make it that much more personal and engaging. I would absolutely recommend people see this play as it completely envelops you into the story, making you completely forget you are even in a theater.