"A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Theatre review
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Ithaca College
The Ithaca Journal
April 24, 2008
656 words
"IC Theatre offers a fantastic ‘Midsummer Night's Dream'"

full text here

IC Theatre offers a fantastic ‘Midsummer Night's Dream'
By Mark Tedeschi • Special to The Journal • April 24, 2008

When Michael Hoffman's 1999 film version of William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” was released, critic Russel Smith of the Austin Chronicle called the play “the most screwup-proof of the bard's works.” If his cryptically complimentary comment is true, it may simply mean that the play is a better candidate for experimentation than other Shakespeare texts.
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Director Norm Johnson, no stranger to challenging actors' physical capabilities (as he proved with his direction of “Alice in Wonderland” at Cornell this year) combined inspiration from the psychology of dreams, the music of indie bands Beirut and Gogol Bordello, the notion of Shakespeare as “fairytales for adults,” and the history of Roma gypsy culture to produce Ithaca College Theatre's fantastic production of “A Midsummer Night's Dream.”

The comedy's plot, composed of three interlaced storylines, is a bit much to digest when it's bunched up into a few paragraphs, but much easier (and more enjoyable) to follow on stage. Here goes: Duke Egeus (Michael Haller) commands his daughter Hermia (Eliza Silverman) to marry Demetrius (Jared Zirilli). She refuses, opting instead to steal into the woods to elope with her true love, Lysander (Ben Hart). Helena (Vicki Rodriguez), in love with Demetrius, reveals the plan to him and follows them all into the woods.

Fairies inhabit the forest; their king, Oberon (Andrew Krug) wants to teach his disobedient wife Titania (Celeste Sayles) a lesson, so he directs the scampish Puck (Corrinne Proctor) to secretly give her a type of love potion. He also tells Puck give the same potion to Demetrius, whom Oberon had seen in the woods earlier. Puck, mistaken, gives it to Lysander instead.

Meanwhile, a rough but energetic group of workers called the “Mechanicals,” led by Peter Quince (Brian Judkins), plan to put on a production of “Pyramus and Thisbe.” Prima donna Nick Bottom (Patrick Prudent) takes a lead role, but the production is hindered when Puck plants on him the head of a donkey and directs toward him the bewitched affections of Queen Titania.

Whew! The show runs nearly three hours, but there is never a dragging moment: you have Katie Delaney's elaborate, gorgeous costumes and Sarah Watson's clever, quick-changing set design under Sandra Podolsky's mystical lighting to gaze at; Jillian Marie Walker's sound design and fantastic fairy-wold musical compositions to listen to; and, of course, William Shakespeare's exquisite fountain of language to bathe in.

Only actors of appropriate caliber can bring out the integral beauty of Shakespeare's words, and I feel oddly confident saying that in this show, everyone qualifies. Not only do they speak their lines with conviction and clarity--Johnson also calls on them to navigate the stage with intense speed and grace, construct a lifelike mechanical donkey, learn new musical instruments, and compose compelling gypsy-style music for the play-within-a-play toward the end.

Johnson infuses two hooks into his version of the story: first, the opening revelation that the coming events are part of a child's dream; and second, the unique decision to place the events at (or near) a gypsy camp. The former seems almost unnecessary, since the latter boosts the dynamic enjoyment of the play--even though, as Johnson points out in the program notes, “Roma history...is a far cry from the romanticized image that many have of gypsy life.” The girl's inclusion (she also explores and occasionally participates in her dream) also slightly alters the meaning of the title “Dream” from the characters' interpretation of the night as too unlikely for reality to the concept that the entire play is a nocturnal vision. (And just as a curious side note, that makes “Pyramus and Thisbe” a play-within-a-dream-within-a-play.)

My miniature grouse should detract nothing from the sound achievement the cast and crew at IC have earned. Their version of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” might owe its engaging success to their embracing the sometimes daring experimentation that dedicated admirers of Shakespeare's oeuvre have proven conducive to his work time and time again.

The show runs at 8 p.m. today-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday in the Clark Theatre at Dillingham Center. Tickets are $4.50-$10. Call 274-3224 or (607) 273-4497 or visit www.ithacaevents.com. For more information, visit www.ithaca.edu/theatre.