THEATRE REVIEW:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
25 FEB/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

TORONTO - Considering it's one of the most produced plays in Shakespeare's canon, it's a safe bet most theatre fans have seen a production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. But if one ups the ante and puts money on people who have seen memorable productions of this prototypical romantic comedy, the odds get a lot slimmer. This is truly the Rodney Dangerfield of Shakespeare's work, too often garnering scant respect from fledgling actors and directors alike.

Yet, as anyone who's seen one of those memorable productions can attest, all it takes from a directorial point of view is a certain sense of balance and tension between the human element and the magical -- a balancing act, admittedly, a little like balancing on a tight rope over the Grand Canyon. So, full credit to fledgling director Rick Roberts who tackles THE DREAM head-on in a new production for Soulpepper and comes out, if not covered in glory, at least with his dignity intact and an interesting first effort to grace his resumé. His Dream opened Wednesday at the Young Centre.

It is most definitely a concept DREAM, and Roberts has conspired with designers Ken MacKenzie (set and costumes) and Lorenzo Savoini (lights) to create a court of Athens and an enchanted forest, both of which are worthy of the tale. Throw in some magical work by Mike Ross, who has created a soundscape best described as 'found' music, and movement by coach Jane Johanson, who does almost as well with her choreography, and things look pretty bright. Together, under Roberts' hand, they create a dark and foreboding forest world, almost completely at odds with the sunny Athens of Duke Theseus and his soon-to be consort, Hippolyta -- Ins Choi and Trish Lindstrom respectively, doing double duty as Oberon and TItania, King and Queen of the forest fairies too.

For the first half of the show, Roberts and his creative team do such a bang-up job it is almost possible to ignore the fact that, somehow, in the press of things, the human element -- built around the enduring text that drives this story -- is being lost in the shuffle. In familiar fashion, Abena Malika's Hermia, Ross's adoring Lysander, Brendan Wall's spurned Demetrius and Karen Rae's besotted Helena -- the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare's tale -- find themselves in a forest peopled by a clutch of animated and often malevolent snuggies, all in thrall to the whims of Gregory Prest's sneering and sardonic Puck.

But despite the magical world opened up in Roberts' first act, this cast fails to fill it with magic in the second. Oberon flies into childish rages ill fitting his status, Puck channels the Three Stooges and bad accents, and the young lovers fail to convince us they're even remotely in lust, with all chemistry limited seemingly to Mason jars. As for the text (always an important consideration), in this sea of youthful enthusiasm, only Lindstrom seems at home with it.

Except, that is, for the mechanicals -- that hapless group of Athenian tradesmen, charged with creating a theatrical piece to grace their Duke's wedding celebrations. Led by the indefatigable Oliver Dennis and Michael Simpson, Michael Hanrahan, John Jarvis and William Webster come close to stealing the show. Well, despite the fact that, as the hapless Bottom, Dennis finds himself trapped at a pivotal plot point, in some sort of zoological hell, more squirrel than ass. Happily, that problem diminishes his death of a thousand cuts as Pyramus by not one single iota, in a rollicking ending that finally manages to make much of what went before it seem a little less like a DREAM destined to be quickly forgotten.