New World Rep stages a 'Midsummer' for all seasons
A puzzled look crossed my editor's face when I told her that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" would be this week's featured review. Like me, she found it odd that New World Repertory Theater had scheduled William Shakespeare's romantic romp - a Shakespeare-in-the-park staple typically performed midyear - for the fall. Unseasonable it may be, but director/set designer Jean Gottlieb's charming production comes at the right time.
It helps that early October's warm spell provided a fair facsimile of summer. But more than that, Gottlieb's breezy take on the bucolic comedy, in which mischievous faeries meddle in the affairs of temporarily misaligned lovers, is a welcome respite for audiences needing a pick-me-up after watching their 401(k)s nose-dive during Wall Street's most volatile week ever.
Gottlieb sets up her lighter-than-air production with a playful prologue in which faeries - looking like refugees from the Summer of Love in Rocco Renda's boldly patterned retro costumes with their masked and painted faces and garlands in their hair - spar with each other and bedevil unsuspecting mortals.
A lush, forest bower occupies stage right and the well-manicured, marble-accented grounds of Theseus' Athenian palace occupy stage left. The bifurcated design nicely contrasts the untamed, natural world (where passion dominates) and civilized society (where restraint prevails). But it poses a problem in that most of the action unfolds in the forest, which makes the pristine palace backdrop a bit distracting.
The play opens the day before the wedding of Athenian duke Theseus (Matt Tucker) and Amazon queen Hippolyta (Maggie Clennon Reberg). The officious Egeus (Jeff Harris) requests the duke compel Egeus' headstrong daughter Hermia (Stephanie Limesand, the picture of a sorority girl) to marry Egeus' preferred suitor, Demetrius (a smug Patrick Doolin).
Hermia, however, favors Lysander (the boyishly charming Conor Woods), who suggests they elope that evening. The couple confides in Helena (a savvy and sympathetic Emily Carlson). Hoping to win back her former suitor Demetrius, Helena informs him of the lovers' plans.
Demetrius, followed by Helena, pursues the couple into the forest where faerie king Oberon (Tucker, who teases rather than menaces) and his queen, Titania (earth mother Reberg), are involved in a domestic squabble of their own. To get back at his obstinate queen, Oberon has his right-hand-man Puck (a nimble and engaging Tom Wells) dose her with a potion while she sleeps that will cause her upon awakening to fall in love with the first creature she sees.
Having observed Demetrius' unkind treatment of Helena, Oberon orders Puck to use the same potion on Demetrius, causing unexpected consequences for the four Athenians.
Caught up in the machinations are a hapless group of laborers turned thespians rehearsing a production of "Pyramus and Thisbe," which they intend to perform at the duke's wedding. Frazzled director Peter Quince (Rob Grabowski) tries to whip into shape the inept sextet that includes Bottom - a funny Will Hare as the endearingly overbearing weaver who is magically transformed into a beast most like himself - in the role of Pyramus and Flute (nice work by Patrick Tierney as the grieving lover of the play-within-a-play) as his reluctant Thisbe. The tailor Starveling (Rocco Renda), second in command Snout (Jeff Taylor) and the slightly dim Snug (Harris) round out the troupe.
The show is well-paced thanks to some remarkably quick costume changes and funny thanks to bits of carefully measured comic business, which amounts to the sprinkles on this cupcake. But what really recommends this show is its agreeable cast and the particularly droll performances from the actors playing the "rude mechanicals." Their delightfully goofy diversion is worth the price of admission.
three stars
"A Midsummer Night's Dream"
@x BTO factbox text bold with rule:Location: New World Repertory Theater, 923 Curtiss St., Downers Grove
Times: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays; through Nov. 8
Running time: About two hours, 20 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $12-$20
Parking: Street parkiqqng available
Box office: (630) 663-1489 or newworldrep.org
Rating: For high school and older, some sexual innuendo and slight nudity