A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM


A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a quarter-century tradition at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, is back for 2021, trimmed to ninety minutes and jam-packed with physical comedy and song performed by one of the finest Theatricum casts ever, most of them performing in it for the very first time.

Forested Topanga hills once again offer an ideal natural backdrop to Shakespeare’s classic tale of imperious royals, comic-relief-providing strolling players, and star-crossed lovers Lysander (Joey Major) and Hermia (Julia Lisa), in a tizzy about her impending forced marriage to Demetrius (Ethan Haslam), whose ex Helena (Sara Mountjoy-Pepka) still carries a torch.

 When the mismatched foursome head off to a nearby forest, impish court jester Robin Goodfellow, aka Puck (Terrence Wayne, Jr.) mistakenly anoints Lysander’s eyelids with magic love juice, causing the young man to fall for the first person he sets his eyes on (who just happens to be Helena), after which Demetrius gets the same magic potion applied to his eyelids, quickly gazes at Helena, and before you know it the object of their mutual affection suddenly finds herself with a pair of lovestruck suitors and poor Hermia with none.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the woods, a band of strolling players are busy rehearsing when Puck gives troupe leader Bottom (Thad Geer) a donkey’s head, then applies some love juice to the eyelids of sleeping Queen Titania (Melora Marshall), and the newly ass-faced Bottom finds himself the apple of Her Majesty’s eyes.

Soon, Hermia and Helena have their claws out, Demetrius and Lysander are exchanging blows, and the troupe of players are donning costumes to stage The Most Lamentable Comedy, And Most Cruel Death Of Pyramus And Thisbe.

Director Marshall, once again a magnificent Titania, ups the physical hijinks to hilarious effect, particularly when performed by the delightfully ditzy Lisa and Mountjoy-Pepka and the delectably dashing Haslam and Major as Midsummer Night’s captivating quartet of young lovers.

The dynamic Wayne plays Puck with spunk and panache, fairies Cobweb (Grace Hawthorn), Mustardseed (Leesa Kim), and Peaseblossom (Alexandra Kunin) flit engagingly hither and thither while chirping and cooing like the otherworldly forest creatures they are, and Aarush Mehta’s Changeling Child steals hearts just by being his adorable preschool self.

Lisa Wolpe proves herself a veritable force of nature as Oberon, deftly supported by Jose Donado (Theseus), Oyemen Ehikhamhen (Hippolyta), Tim Halligan (Egeus), and Patrick Olsen (Philostrate), and ensemble members Joseph Bricker, Ava Collins, and Jordan Tyler Kessler.

And then there are “The Mechanicals,” headed by Theatricum Botanicum legend Geer as the most scene-stealing of Bottoms, who doubles as Pyramus in Midsummer Night’s Dream’s play-within-the-play while insisting with bottomless braggadocio that he could just as easily undertake any and all roles at once.

And what a fabulous team of fellow traveling players director Marshall has assembled for 2021, from Sky Wahl’s Snout (a zany Wall in Pyramus And Thisbe), Ted Elrick’s amusing Starveling, understudy Tim Frangos’s Flute giving leading “lady” Thisbe the cutest of falsettos, the redoubtable Earnestine Phillips having a ball as Quince, and Jacob Salazar’s Snug roaring up a storm as Lion.

Taking a cue from 2019’s Twelfth Night, Theatricum Botanicum has turned A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2021 into quite nearly a musical, characters performing some of the play’s Shakespearean iambic pentameter as “lyrics” to Marshall McDaniel and Ellen Geer’s rapturous original music. (Cast member Wahl doubles as musician to provide live musical foley effects with bells, chimes, and more.)

Add to this Max Lawrence’s graceful choreography, Beth Eslick’s wondrous costumes, McDaniel’s and Grant Escandón’s otherworldly sound design, Zachary Moore’s bewitching lighting, and Sydney Russell’s fantastical properties and you have a Midsummer Night’s Dream that enchants the eyes and ears alike.

(Ellen) Geer and Kessler are assistant directors. Bri Pattillo is associate lighting designer and Eslick is wardrobe supervisor.

Karen Osborne is stage manager and Talya Camras is assistant stage manager. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Even those who’ve been enraptured by Theatricum Botanicum’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in years past won’t want to miss this year’s return engagement. Meticulously trimmed, melodiously scored, and masterfully performed, it is summer theater under the stars at its heavenly best.

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.
www.theatricum.com

–Steven Stanley
August 1, 2021
Photos: Ian Flanders

 

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