A Mid-summer's Midsummer


Reviewed 7/1/05
Revised for factual error 7/5/05

A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Greg Hynes
The Shakespeare Theatre
Phoenix Theatre's Little Theatre, Phoenix
(602) 796-2038
July 1st - 16th , 2005
$10.00 - $15.00

Less than four short years ago, opening on the unfortunate date of September 12th, 2001, Wes Martin’s The Shakespeare Theatre offered their production of Shakespeare’s most often produced comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the company has moved from Ironwood High School and cast different actors, current director Greg Hynes has echoed Peggy Oel’s concept of setting the play in ancient Greece. You’d think this might be too soon to remount the production, considering the Bard’s extensive canon, but TST needs to be financially stable, so while Southwest Shakespeare can be depended upon to eventually and high-mindedly present every one of the Bard’s works, Martin will find a way to keep shows like this and his upcoming remount of the Scottish play in recirculation. Think of it as The Greatest Hits of Shakespeare Theatre. Where their last Midsummer was a modest piece, this version is stronger in some very specific ways, although weaker in a few. It still has an awful court (as seems to be the pattern whenever this play is produced), but the work of the lovers is solid, his rude mechanicals are a scream, and though headed by a couple of nonentities, this fairy world is enchanting.

Let’s start with the positives. Rob Evans is hilarious as Nick Bottom. His rubber face, emotional investment in each moment and pinpoint comic timing lets him be over-the-top without smothering the comedy or the performances of those around him. He is surrounded by a collection of rude mechanicals who find ways of using one comedic device to propel their characters: Kane Anderson’s Flute/Thisbe is a knockabout always ready for a tumble; Franc Gaxiola is the living embodiment of the snot joke as the Pigpen-styled Snout/Wall; Jere Van Patten is a funny flutter of snide reproaches and moving lips while reading the script as Quince/Prologue; Dan Stroud’s Starveling/Moonshine is every senility joke ever spoken; and Brian Lerner takes meek to the utmost as Snug/Lion.

What Martin’s Puck lacks in subtlety he more than overwhelmingly makes up for in his willingness to go anywhere to make the audience laugh. It’s nice to see Martin let out his Id, one that we all know barely lurks beneath the surface, in a way that turns Puck into a half-goat Pan with Bacchanalian sensibilities. He works for an Oberon (Keith Nagel) and against a Titania (Julie Lee) who seem more like rejected contestants from Trading Spouses than powerful rulers of fairy-dom. Nagel bears a striking resemblance to Oz’s Tin Man, with an odd gentility that undercuts any strength. Hynes allows him to be more a set-up man for Martin’s scene-stealing reactions than a full character. Lee appears hesitant onstage at first, but then settles into a low drone of line reading. Her Fairy attendants, especially Meghan Ashley’s Willo, are pretty to look at and serve their purpose as single-joke charmers during Bottom’s donkey scene.

As the interchangeable and magically transformed lovers, Ariel Burdick (Hermia), Daniel Gallai (Lysander), Jessica Helmer (Helena), and Dave Hurley (Demtrius) are all successful in presenting their alternating syrupy and comic moments. Neither Burdick nor Helmer seem particularly connected to one another, but they present their crucial spurn and chase scenes well. Gallai is strong at emoting, and while Hurley is more prone to posing, he does fire off a few good volleys, notably during the “treat me as your spaniel” scene.

One question deserves to be answered: Why does the Athenian court always suck when this show is mounted? Is it because it figures least into the plot and comedy? Whatever Hynes’ reasoning, we are presented with a Theseus (Mark Broadley) and Hippolyta (Adrian Burrell) who aren’t even half-joke creations. Hynes strips away any subtlety about Theseus’ capture of Hippolyta and her reluctant betrothal and turns them into pawing teens in heat. I understand that Broadley is a breathing male-often the prerequisite for getting a role in this town-but enough is enough. I defy anyone to differentiate any of the seeming hundreds of roles in which he’s been wrongly cast. I can’t, and I wish it would stop. Burrell’s husky voice and strapping girth are the only intimations of character she uses as she barrels through Hippolyta like an Amazon on a flaming steed. James Borgmann’s Egeus was utterly unmemorable; in a lineup, I’d miss him four out of five times. At least Robert Schile makes choices as "suck up" servant Philostrate. I didn’t like any of them, but recognizable choices are better than nothing.

A lot of Hynes’ success as a director comes from his character work. Visually, there is nothing spectacular to speak of. His stage pictures are too often lines that fail to engage the eye. His limited set design is meant to evoke the Old Globe sans the rake. His work with Mona Nigohossian and Adrian Burrell results in an overall impressive costume design, especially in their work with Mechanicals, less so with the Fairies and with awkward footwear. Wolfram Ott’s lighting design is undistinguished, depending almost completely on gobos for differentiating settings. Perhaps db Bailey’s choreography worked, but I don’t exactly remember any real dance moments to say so.

-30-