The critically acclaimed Aquila Theatre Company made a stop at Popejoy to perform William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Saturday.
Though Shakespeare is known as a master of expressing human emotion, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is his equivalent of a Marx Brothers movie. It is a slapstick comedy that heavily relies on the physicality of the actors to express its humor.
Unfortunately, the cast was not up to this task.
The play tells the story of love and the misadventures that come from it and takes place in ancient Athens in a world of magic.
Four main stories cross throughout the play. In the main story, four lovers are caught in a tangle. Two men, Demetrius and Lysander, are both in love with Hermia. Hermia is in love with Lysander and, to make matters slightly more complicated, Helena is in love with Demetrius.
While this is going on, the Duke of Athens, Theseus, is set to wed Hippolyta and he hires an acting troupe to play at his wedding. Above all this, the King and Queen of the fairies are in a fight over a small child and take out their anger on the humans.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The major humor of the play comes from the confusing plot, as the King sends his minion, Puck, to cast spells on the lovers so Demetrius will fall in love with Helena. However, Puck accidentally makes both Demetrius and Lysander fall madly in love with Helena.
The King then casts a spell on his feuding Queen and she falls in love with the lead actor of the troupe, Bottom, who was transformed by Puck into a donkey.
Hilarity ensues.
This particular production did a good job of showing the differences between the human and the fairy world by moving around fancy umbrellas to create simple yet clever scenes. Lighting and music were used intricately and created a difference between the wonder and magic in the fairy world and the normalcy of the humans.
The cast worked hard, with eight actors running around in a play with 20 parts. While the transition appeared seamless, Shakespeare's original dialogue was given to different characters to make the scenes work.
Because of the limited cast, several of the major jokes were lost and the complex humor was harder to express.
As far as the acting went, most of it was high quality. The four lovers are generally the dullest characters in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but the actors were very quirky and the confusion and mix-up given was very clear in the interpretation.
However, the acting troupe, which usually provides the most comedy, was dull and rather boring. The lead actor, Bottom, was played more as an idiot than as an innocent over-actor.
The only problem I have with the writing is the end monologue by Puck. In it, he apologizes for the last two hours and says to think of it as a dream rather than a waste of time, as if Shakespeare didn't like how the show turned out. It puts a sour note on an otherwise enjoyable play.
