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The Wall STreeT Journal.
Opinion
| Theater Review
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Review:
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
An ethereal ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from Bedlam Theatre Company’s
artistic director wows at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
By Terry Teachout
June 25, 2015
Garrison, N.Y.
Eric Tucker and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival were made
for each other. I suspected as much when Mr. Tucker, Bedlam
Theatre Company’s phenomenally talented artistic director, made his
Hudson Valley debut last summer with a “Two Gentlemen of Verona”
in which he turned that not-quite-top-tier farce into a riotous spoof of
a beach-blanket movie. Now he’s applied Bedlam’s less-is-more
formula—in this case, five actors, no set or props, dirt-cheap
costumes and imagination without limit—to
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the results are sublime.
Foreground kneeling from left, Jason O’Connell and Mark Bedard. Background from left, Nance Williamson and Joey Parsons
Photo: T Charles Erickson
Mr. Tucker’s “Midsummer” put me in mind of G.K. Chesterton’s
remark that a good production of this miraculous masterpiece
produces “an uproarious communion between the public and the
play.” That’s exactly what happens under Hudson Valley’s spacious,
inviting outdoor tent when Mark Bedard, Sean McNall,
Jason O’Connell, Joey Parsons and Nance Williamson take the stage
and start to impersonate Shakespeare’s 20-odd characters. But while
the laughter that arises from their collective antics is both explosive
and irresistible, this “Midsummer” is no mere jokefest.
Not since Peter Brook’s now-legendary 1970 Royal Shakespeare Company
version has there been so radically original or mysteriously poetic a production
of the greatest of all stage comedies. It seals Mr. Tucker’s reputation as the
outstanding American classical stage director of his generation.
The conceit of the show looks simple on paper: Mr. Tucker has staged “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as a dream, one from which the five players suddenly
awake at night’s end. Accordingly, the action is fragmented in such a way as to suggest the ever-shifting meanings and identities of the characters in a
dream, a directorial approach whose surrealism is heightened by the breathtaking quickness with which the actors jump from part to part (Mr. O’Connell,
for instance, plays both Puck and Bottom). If you’re not familiar with the play going in, you’ll likely find the results initially disorienting, even confusing—
but that’s how you’re supposed to feel. All you need do is throw away your preconceptions and surrender to the thrill of the moment, and you’ll be swept
away by the phantasmagorical illogic of the parade of dramatic events.
Mr. O’Connell is the star of the show, and Mr. Tucker makes blazingly creative use of his shape-shifting virtuosity. Imagine Jonathan Winters as a Shakespearean clown and you’ll get some small idea of what it’s like to watch Mr. O’Connell play Puck as a mosquito, or Pyramus as Marlon Brando. His fellow
cast members need no coaxing, though, to seize their turns in the spotlight, especially Ms. Williamson, a 15-year Hudson Valley veteran who clearly relishes the chance to fling herself head first into the comic maelstrom stirred up by her younger colleagues. Ms. Parsons is just as striking in a totally different
way: She’s the beautiful “straight man” who gets her laughs by reacting realistically to the lunacy that engulfs her. Titania is one of her parts, and you’ll
long remember the open-mouthed look of ecstasy that irradiates her face when she sees Bottom for the first time after Puck turns him into an ass. (For the
record, Mr. O’Connell accomplishes the transformation without benefit of the usual prop donkey head. You won’t miss it.)
This production will transfer to New York’s Pearl Theatre Company on Sept. 11. See it now or then—but definitely see it.
—Mr. Teachout, the Journal’s drama critic, is the author of “Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington.” Write to him at [email protected]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Boscobel House and Gardens, Garrison, N.Y.
$30-$85, 845-265-9575, closes Aug. 28