A Midsummer Night's Dream, Folger Theatre, Washington, DC

 

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is many things: a comedy, a romance, a fantasy, even a revenge drama. The most often produced of Shakespeare’s plays, it has always been a fan favorite. I had my own experiences with it, once upon a time, many, many years ago, when I acted in a college production of it – as Peter Quince, the carpenter who directs “the play within the play.”

I have never been a Shakespeare purist. I celebrate colorblind casting and have seen well-executed performances by women playing male characters. (Remember, all of Shakespeare’s plays were originally staged with men playing all of the roles.) I’ve seen successful productions that were set in different time periods. I remember a touring production of Much Ado About Nothing set in 1950s Cuba that I saw in Durham, NC, over 30 years ago.

But this “adaptation” of Shakespeare’s play, produced by the Washington’s Folger Theatre at the National Building Museum this summer, was “impure” enough to bring out a bit of the purist in me. As adapted and directed by Victor Malana Maog, this 90-minute Midsummer goes too far – rearranging scenes (the play starts with Act I, Scene 2, followed by Act I, Scene 1), switching characters’ genders (Titania puts her spell on Oberon rather than vice versa), interpolating contemporary expressions and including references based on the race of the actor (at least twice, the African American actor playing Bottom mentions “Black baby Jesus”), and using modern music (an instrumental version of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” plays at the beginning of the play and several times afterward). I don’t know the play well enough to determine what scenes may have been compressed or cut, but to get the running time down to 90 minutes, there must have been some editing.

Recently there has been coverage of an unauthorized production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton by a church in Texas, in which specific conservative religious content was inserted, antithetical to the messaging of the iconic musical. Miranda, appropriately, sued to stop the production. I was reminded of that during this Midsummer. Were he alive today, I would encourage Shakespeare to file a similar suit.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the play, a conflict between the king and queen of the fairies coincides with preparations for a royal wedding. A group of tradesmen prepare a play to be presented as part of the wedding celebration. Caught up in this madness is a pair of young couples involved in a romantic triangle. The fairies distribute magical potions to give one of the tradesmen the head of an ass and causes the fairy king (this is where the characters are changed) to fall in love with the ass when he awakens from his sleep. Similarly, misdirecting the potion on the young lovers changes their dynamic, confusing matters even more. Everything comes to a happy ending as the fairy king and queen reunite and the royal wedding takes place, followed by the tradesmen’s performance.

The design team included Tony Cisek (production), Jim Hunter (festival stage), Olivera Gajic (costumes), Yael Lubetzky (lighting), and Brandon Wolcott (sound and composer). The production was visually striking, making excellent use of the “playhouse” (festival stage) constructed within the cavernous space of the National Building Museum. The costumes are a combination of contemporary and fantasy, sometimes overpowering the action. Because this was an afternoon matinee in a space filled with natural light, lighting effects had minimal impact. The sound was tricky to balance in the unusual space.

The acting ranged from the bloviating of Jacob Ming-Trent as Bottom to the fire of Renea S. Brown as Helena, with more falling toward the overacting side of the continuum. Danaya Esperanza’s Puck demonstrated a mischievous and mysterious air, even when bouncing about a purple balloon at the beginning and ending of the performance. Since I once played the role, I paid special attention to John-Alexander Sakelos as Peter Quince and found his performance engaging. (I can relate to the frustrated director working with inexperienced and inept actors.) John Floyd as Flute and Brit Herring as Snout performed their roles in the play-within-the-play (Thisbe and Wall, respectively) with great energy.

The cast members threw themselves into this director’s adaptation and may be admired for that, no matter how misguided his vision. What is the point of the gender-bending switch, so that Oberon and not Titania falls in love with Bottom? Oberon’s entrance in a strapless purple gown with a long train is certainly startling, but the face-off between Oberon in his red gown and Titania in her yellow (with an even longer train) becomes ludicrous.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has the largest Shakespeare collection in the world and has always been a standard for Shakespearean interpretation. As such, this production of the Folger’s Theatre challenges my understanding of that historic relationship.