The Rude Mechanicals' production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last weekend provided a refreshing and delightful segue into the highly ironic mid-fall season, inviting audiences to enjoy the famous playwright's fusion of fantasy, love and humor.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a romantic comedy set during the wedding of Athenian duke Theseus and Amazonian queen Hippolyta. While there are interconnecting plots, the play centers around four impassioned lovers, whose conflicting affections inspire the close intervention of fairies from the woodland. Love elixirs and several misplaced enchantments cause the lovers and fairies to all experience the comical bewilderment of love.
The most memorable performance of the play was from Esther Van Wely, a sophomore in the School of Communication, who played Nick Bottom, a member of the inspired Rude Mechanicals, a comedy troupe that performs a play for Theseus and Hippolyta. Puck, one of the main fairies, transforms Bottom's head into that of a donkey as part of a strategic love scheme. Van Wely, wearing donkey ears on her head, garnered many laughs during the show as she gave her character an unforgettable guffaw and dynamic mannerisms that created the comic relief critical to Shakespeare's romantic comedy.
The play's set design consisted of a small wooden hideout at the far corner of the stage, in which the sprightly fairies watched the lovers from behind dark gray curtains that represented the fairyland. The production would have benefited from more scenery to capture the mysticism of the woodland and forest atmosphere, though the open space of the stage admittedly helped draw favorable attention to the actors.
While the set design was spare and unimaginative, the costume design added some necessary creative mysticism to the play. The fairies wore light, airy dresses or smocks of bright fuchsia and green. These outfits gave the production a splash of color and added an ethereal sense of magic, contrasting the overall blackness of the stage. The lovers' wardrobe was casual and relaxed, most of them wearing jeans, a hoodie or a button-down shirt. This allowed audience members, most of whom were students, to relate to the play's story - especially as it involved love and relationships.
Likewise, the musical selection erected exotic and entrancing scenes that contributed to the fantasy of Shakespeare's play. During one scene of the play, the fairies performed a dance sequence to an alluring musical number that created a dream-like effect. The fairies used strips of equally bright fabric to delicately whisk the audience into their fairy world.
The Mechanicals' production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was a satisfying adaptation of Shakespeare's original 1604 play and is a remarkable testament to the enduring power of plays, love and dreams.
You can reach this staff writer at rluong@theeagleonline.com.
