A Midsummer-Night's Dream

To celebrate the opening of the 50th season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, new artistic director Philip Sneed begins his tenure with A Midsummer-Night's Dream, and a good choice it is considering the unseasonably warm weather and the clever adaptation by director Gavin Cameron-Webb.

(L to R) William C. Kovacsik as Robin Starveling, Stephen Weitz as Nick Bottom, Seth Maisel as Snug, Jesse Ryan Harward as Tom Snout, Maria-Christina Oliveras as Petra Quince, and Broderick Ballantyne as Francis Flute. Photo by Casey A. Cass, University of Colorado Photo Department

Cameron-Webb sets the play in a Victorian theatre, adding a couple of telling layers of subtext to what many consider to be the first example of the fantasy genre. In his notes, the director ties this imaginative exercise to the foremost Victorian fantasist, M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, who is quoted as saying, "I know not, sir, whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life."

While Barrie was a few decades too early to fully benefit from research that uncovered the true author, he was on the right track in assuming the Stratford man was a poseur. In the course of penning over three dozen plays, the genius behind the Shakespearean canon, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, takes the liberty on a number of occasions of lambasting the "upstart crow" that attempted to portray himself as the playwright by taking advantage of the true author's forced anonymity and the absence of copyright law.

Karen Slack as Titania and Stephen Weitz as Bottom. Photo by Casey A. Cass, University of Colorado Photo Department

Thus was born Bottom, one of the great comedic characters in the history of theatre, as a means of poking fun at the short-lived infatuation of Queen Elizabeth toward the rustic part-time actor and grain dealer who claimed authorship. But this is just one of many autobiographic elements in de Vere's delightful entertainment.

Framing the story is the marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta, stand-ins for Sir Thomas Heneage and Mary Browne Wriothesley, who consecrated a union of formerly contentious clans. As Hippolyta, Karen Slack's deep-seated disdain for Kyle Haden's Theseus plays to the back of the amphitheatre, even if we may not be privy to the historical allusions, while Haden blithely ignores her. Though this relationship is traditionally played not as coolly, Cameron-Webb's choice of open animosity is more in tune with the playwright's intentions.

Robert Tobin as Lysander and Alexandra Lewis as Hermia. Photo by Casey A. Cass, University of Colorado Photo Department

The romantic roundabout between Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena is right out of de Vere's own family drama, when he (Egeus) sought to marry his daughter Elizabeth (Hermia) to the Earl of Southhampton (Demetrius), while she preferred the Earl of Derby (Lysander). In real life, as in the play, Elizabeth got her way and the husband of her own choosing.

The ménage à quatre's confusion over their affections is common enough among hormonally-challenged youth (as it is as well among mature adults), but mixed with the magic of Oberon's and Puck's love and memory potions, the action becomes a farcical comment on the fickleness of love.

Alexandra Lewis' Hermia is outpoken over her choice of husband's; Sarah Fallon's Helena is tongue-in-cheek distraught and witty over Demetrius' lack of interest; and Josh Robinson's Demetrius and Roibert Tobin's Lysander are ardent in their ever-changing pursuits. Slack and Fallon are particulary noteworthy in their scansion, while Haden's and Tobin's elocution stand out.

Left to Right: Broderick Ballantyne as Francis Flute, William C. Kovacsik as Robin Starveling, Stephen Weitz as Nick Bottom, Jesse Ryan Harward as Tom Snout, Seth Maisel as Snug, Maria-Christina Oliveras as Petra Quince. Photo by Casey A. Cass, University of Colorado Photo Department

Stephen Weitz impresses as Bottom, exhibiting an array of vocal chops in stressing the weaver's impressive imagination and energetic approach to all aspects of the Mechanicals' production. John Plumpis is a mischievous and captivating Puck. Robinson delivers a sweet monologue to resolve the lovers' issues.

As always in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, the most problematic element is the seemingly anticlimactic play-within-a-play that comprises the bulk of Act V, where the the oddball troupe is unable to provide enough shtick to support the text and the length of the skit, thus distracting from the resolution of the comedy. Here, one day, we hope to see Bottom unmasked, with a clear visual reference to the Stratford impostor, allowing us to share in de Vere's mirth as he draws a stark line on the boards betwixt author and actor.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's A Midsummer-Night's Dream runs through August 18th in repertory with Julius Caesar, All's Well That End's Well, A Servant of Two Masters, and Around the World in 80 Days on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus. 303-492-0554.

Bob Bows