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| Image found here |
A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play. It's such a fun love story (that involves magic and fairies, btw), and it has a happy ending. I saw it at the Synetic Theater in 2013 (read that blog post here), and I saw it again as an outdoor show with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in the summer of 2018. I never get tired of it, and I always like to see new versions and reinterpretations of a story that has clearly stood the test of time.
The Folger Theatre is still closed due to COVID-19 (and perhaps renovations?), so instead they put on this play in the National Building Museum. The museum is a very cool venue because it has a HUGE atrium where you can fit nearly anything. They have hosted inaugural balls there, and I took a yoga class in there once when a tall, fake-grass hill was installed in the room. For this play, they created a playhouse within the atrium. I walked through a foyer that was supposed to give you the feeling of walking into a forest, and there were drawings of several of the characters within the foyer. Then there was a curtain, and once I walked under some bistro lights, I entered the real theater part. And it was beautiful:
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| Stage designer Jim Hunter (left) and production designer Tom Cisek. Image found here |
The set, which looks like the inside of a castle, works well in representing the location for all of the scenes: within the palace, in the middle of the forest, etc. And while it was beautiful in the light (since the play started at 8:00 p.m. in the summer, there was actually a lot of natural light in the space for some time), the space transformed with wonderful lighting once it got dark:
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As for the actors, I thought they all did a very good job! I was particularly impressed by Jacob Ming-Trent, who played a very funny Bottom, and Nubia M. Monks was giving me all sorts of Angela Bassett à la How Stella Got Her Groove Back vibes (plus, she has the most beautiful gowns throughout the show!).
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| Rotimi Agbabiaka is rocking that gown! But the bug-fairies? Not into it. Image found here |
There were parts of the play when I really enjoyed the new, modern interpretation. I did like how Monks and Rotimi Agbabiaka played two sets of royal couples: Hippolyta and Theseus in Athens and Titania and Oberon in the fairy kingdom. I also thought the twist of Titania tricking Oberon into falling in love with Bottom (as an ass) instead of the other way around was interesting (and female-empowering). And as for the magical flower she used to drug Oberon, I thought it was fun that these flowers lit up AND emitted a swirling smoke to show their mystical power. This version threw in some singing too, which was mostly blues or gospel in style, which I loved! (Pre-pandemic, I was a blues dancer, and hearing some of those songs made me want to dance!). I also appreciated the inclusivity represented in this show: there were actors of all different backgrounds, and I think two of them had slight speech impediments. I'm glad that so many people who wants to be an actor can have opportunities to perform in local theater!
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| I know Hermia (Lilli Hokama) is supposed to be a young woman, but for a play, couldn't she have a prettier costume? Image found here. |
But there were some parts I did not enjoy as much. While some of the costumes were beautiful (even Agbabiaka was killing it in that bright pink ballgown!), the four Athenian lovers were just wearing regular clothes; Helena and Hermia (played by Renea S. Brown and Lilli Hokama, respectively) were dressed like they walked out of Clueless. And during their playful fight scenes, they started undressing... Why? I also didn't like the interpretation of the fairies (played by the same people who are the "actors" for the play within the play). I think of fairies as being pretty and graceful, but these characters were insect-like: they each had five or six feathery antennae, flitted about in tic-like motions, and were accompanied by an awful helicopter sound that represented their movements. They were more awkward than cute.
However, those are minor in the grand scheme of things. All in all, I enjoyed this show. It was performed in a gorgeous venue, and the set-up made everything feel more intimate (I was in the second row and felt like I was part of the action!). And again, the actors did a wonderful job, and I definitely laughed out loud a couple of times. It was a fun night out, so get your tickets now!
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