THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407220105
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
IT'S AMAZING what a little moonlight can do.
Stage moonlight, that is.
Virginia Shakespeare Festival's production of ``A Midsummer Night's Dream,'' as directed by James Luse, is a lively, energetic, and even imaginative romp that is an adventurous respite from this festival's usually cautious and traditionally academic stagings.
Luse, a veteran of the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn., has taken the youth of his cast and turned it into a positive force.
The actors come at you from all sides. They jump from the stage into the aisles. They move constantly - and yet this is not an overdone Shakespeare outing.
The cast keeps the emphasis on the words, even when they're driving themselves to exhaustion.
``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is really three plays in one, all amazingly structured as a light, romantic entertainment. Dating from circa 1595, it is one of the early works of the Bard, with a plot borrowed from Chaucer's ``Canterbury Tales.''
The characters range from royalty to spirits to commoners - something for everyone and all of it, in this case, lively.
We have two sets of mismatched lovers who sometimes hate each other and sometimes love the wrong person. We have a band of mischievous fairies who are led by a quarreling king and queen. We have a traveling troupe of bumbling actors who attempt to present a play for the nobility.
The three sets of plots mesh better than any TV soap opera writer could dream.
The wooden Elizabethan facade set, which has become overly familiar to festival regulars since 1978, is, for once, actually dressed to fit this play's forest setting. With the help of vined netting on all sides and laughably utilized potted plants, the rural, magical mood is suggested by satirical imagination that makes up for those ever-present staircases.
Steve Young's lighting design is inspired by moonlight and makes it all look much more dreamlike than would seem possible. William Dean's set decoration is a gem.
The setting has been moved to a French-Canadian colony in the early 17th century. The royals are now French royals. The commoners are settlers of the region and the spirits are Native Americans (which explains the feathered headdress of King Oberon).
B. Christine McDowell's costumes seem to be a mish-mash of styles but they keep the eye engaged and challenged.
A particularly inventive performance from Elizabeth Zins as Helena is the stand-out. This thwarted maiden, who spends a good deal of her on-stage time chasing an uninterested male, is usually something of an also-ran. With the help of ever-present spectacles, she turns the part into a comedic romp that is in marked contrast to her rather bland Desdemona in the festival's ``Othello'' on other nights. (One of the great joys of this repertory staging is to see the same cast in varied roles.)
The other stand-out is Davis McCallum's lanky and good-humored reading of Nick Bottom, the weaver who leads the inept band of traveling players. This part is so often over-done that it is a novelty to see it taken at a logical, and yet still mischievous, pace. McCallum is in his comedic realm here, in contrast with his miscasting as Cassio in ``Othello.''
Robert A. Goddard III, who scores so well as Iago in ``Othello,'' scores again here as Lysander. Tom Summers is a dashing and romantic Demetrius, blessed with a stage presence that should be carefully nurtured.
Mike Kindle is a rather heavyweight and earthbound Puck. Similarly, Michael A. Harding and Jennifer-Scott Mobley lack the needed phony-nobility to suggest the quarreling king and queen of the spirits.
``Midsummer,'' though, is the best bet in this year's festival - a festival staged in the town which first introduced Shakespeare to America (in a 1752 performance of ``The Merchant of Venice'').
The festival, which now operates on a budget of more than $95,000, has been attended by more than 150,000 people in its 16-year run and is drawing crowds this year - proving that there is an audience for Shakespeare.
If the productions could routinely muster the same energy and individuality of this ``Midsummer,'' continued success would be guaranteed. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Bottom (Davis McCallum, center) enjoys the attention of Titania
(Jennifer-Scott Mobley) and the fairies (from left, Jessica Cundari,
Keri Uribe and Kimberly Gordon).
by CNB