A Utah Theater Review by Ben Christensen
With temperatures dropping into the forties, summer is nearly over in Utah, but at Midvale Main Street Theatre midsummer is still going strong. I found the theater easily enough on Midvale Main Street (hence the name), which corresponds with Salt Lake’s 700 West. It’s a small, cozy theater with cushioned chairs set up at tables, dinner theater-style. As small as the theater is, it was sparsely filled last night, the opening night of the A-Muses production Be the Bard: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I hope the production finds a larger audience between now and its closing night on the 22nd, as it’s a unique take on a Shakespeare classic that is definitely worth seeing—and participating in.
Photos by Beth Bruner
See, the idea behind Be the Bard is that the audience not only watches the play, but actually gets to be part of it. Before the play started, Rusty Bringhurst (Egeus/Nick Bottom) explained that the cast was a little shorthanded, so they’d need our help. Then throughout the play, cast members pulled audience members onto the stage, sometimes not-so-willingly, to play various small parts. Participants received cues from the actors, delivered a line or two, then returned to the audience. This unique approach to theater adds an x-factor to the performance, forcing the actors to improvise depending on how audience participants play their parts. It’s a risk, as demonstrated when one audience participant shattered the fourth wall by declaring, “I don’t want to be up here,” but the actors rolled with the punches and gracefully moved participants on and off stage without interrupting the quick-paced flow of the play. I was particularly impressed by Bringhurst, Bryce Kamryn (Francis Flute), Travis Hyer (Thesus/Peaseblossom), and Julie Benedict (Hippolyta/Moth)’s playful interactions with audience members.
The plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream centers around two couples who become the objects of a prank by the King of the Fairies and his mischievous jester. The two couples, portrayed by Kathryn Wilkins (Hermia), Kati Paul (Helena), Ryan Honeycutt (Lysander), and Patrick Harris (Demetrius), play well off each other, coming across as the sometimes friends, sometimes enemies, sometimes star-crossed lovers they each are to the others. Wilkins stands out with her hilarious facial expressions and although Honeycutt stumbled over a couple of lines here and there, he makes up for it with an enthusiasm that fits his character well. Jeremy Jonsson is a playful Oberon and Michelle Hall is charismatic as Titania, his wife. It took me a little while to warm up to Eve Speer as Puck, and I think this is in part due to a mask that covers up her face. As she used body language more and more to convey the childish zeal of her character, though, I came to really enjoy her performance. Another actor who should be mentioned on this same note is Bringhurst, who spends nearly half the play with a donkey head over his face, but still manages to embody his ass of a character masterfully. Really, all of the actors communicate well with body language and facial expressions, which is helpful when performing a play written in four-hundred-year-old language to a 21st-century audience. One minor complaint I have is the almost sing-songy cadence in which most of the actors deliver Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter; this makes some of the dialogue come across a little stilted and unnatural. Kudos to Timothy Schomburg (Peter Quince), who stands out in his natural delivery of the lines, making them sound almost modern.
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As I mentioned earlier, the Midvale Main Street Theatre is small. However, director Mike Brown stages his actors well, effectively using the small space with minimal props and set pieces. A few leaves and vines are strung about to suggest a forest, and the rest is left to our imagination. Lighting is also used minimally, for the most part being adjusted only to darken the stage during scene changes. There is a scene or two that could benefit from more dynamic lighting, for example darkening the stage and using a spotlight while characters are blindly wandering through the dark forest, but for the most part leaving things to the audience’s imagination works for this production. Costumes are standard Shakespearean attire (as is appropriate), with the exception of the fairies’ masks and wings, which look like something you’d get a Halloween costume store. This actually works, adding another level of humor when audience members are brought in and handed a mask and a set of wings in order to transform them into fairies. The only costume that doesn’t quite work for me is Puck’s, which is a little too minimal—basically green hospital scrubs with a few leaves attached. I would have liked to see something a little more elaborate for this central character. I do quite like Puck’s green lipstick, though, as well as the intricate designs painted onto Oberon’s face.
After the play, my companion noted that he could tell the cast had really had a lot of fun with the play. I think this is the best compliment you can give a play, and it’s definitely true of this one. The actors have a great time on stage, and even more so than the standard production where audience members are allowed to remain in their seats, that sense of fun is shared with everyone in the theater. Oh, and when you go to see Be the Bard: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, be sure to buy a pretzel. They’re to die for, almost as good as the play itself.
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