By Sarah Re
Grassroots Shakespeare Company’s telling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, an uproariously funny and engaging production that runs just over an hour, plays all over Utah from Ogden to Moab through July 7. The company will tour with this show and Two Noble Kinsmen, including several performances at the Orem City Center Park where I attended. There are no chairs provided, so be sure to bring some camp chairs or picnic blankets to spread out on. Come early to ensure you get a good seat and to enjoy their pre-show entertainment from Balthazar and the Merry Grassroots Shakespeare Band Project.
Grassroots strives to perform in the same style Shakespeare’s actors would have used: very little rehearsal, no director, no set outside of a simple and portable stage, basic costumes that distinguish characters, music and dancing, and lots and lots of audience interaction. And oh what fun it is! My 10-year-old niece came with me and was thoroughly engaged and entertained the entire time, as were the many other children in attendance (and the grown-ups too).
The well-known comedy is full of magic, mishap, and mayhem as we follow the tangled web of deceit and desire between four sets of couples. Hermia (Paris Abigail Moore) loves Lysander (TJ Christensen), who loves her too. However, he is not loved by Hermia’s father, Egeus (Addison Blakley Radle), who would like to give his daughter to Demetrius (Jarrith Parker McCoy) with whom Helena (Madison Ford) is in love. The show opens with Egeus demanding that Theseus (Daniel Fenton Anderson) and his betrothed, Hippolita (Ashley Havili Thomas), invoke an old law that Hermia must marry whomever the father chooses or be sentenced to death, although Theseus decides to give her the option of becoming a nun. She’s given some time to decide, but instead, Hermia and Lysander then devise a plan to run away and elope. The trouble begins when they share this information with Helena, who decides to lure Demetrius out into the woods to find them and in the process win him back to her.
Hilarity ensues when Oberon, king of the fairies (Anderson) and his mischievous sidekick, Puck (Sharah Meservy), decide to intervene on Helena’s behalf with a magic herb that will make anyone fall in love with the next person, or creature, they see. Oberon at the same time is playing a trick on his queen, Titania (Thomas), hoping she’ll give him her changeling boy. Puck transforms Nick Bottom (Tyler Harris) a blue-collar worker out in the woods with his friends rehearsing a play, into an amusing monster with whom Titania falls in love. From there the whole world is turned upside down as the characters chase after one another, and the play’s driving question becomes, “What is love, and how do I know if you’re the one I want?”
The performances are absolutely hysterical. Several roles are double-cast and cast cross-gender, another nod at traditional Elizabethan staging. For example, many of Bottom’s friends (often known as the Mechanicals). With changes of costume, character masks, and lots of creativity on the actors’ part, Ford becomes Flute, Moore becomes Starveling, McCoy becomes Snug, and Christensen becomes Snout. The actors freely follow their impulses, and each of these characters stands out completely from their other role as one of the four young lovers. Moore is completely free and alive in her body, making every entrance and moment one to remember. Ford’s character for Flute is over-the-top, spot-on, and downright funny, and McCoy plays the perfect cowardly lion. Completing the band are Nick Bottom and Peter Quince (Søren Paul Budge), who play up the rivalry mixed with adoration between these two quite well. Budge has the kind of particular peculiarity that suits Quince as he tries to wrangle the actors and cobble together a winning show for Theseus’ wedding day. Harris infuses a great skill with one-upmanship and sense of self-importance into “Bully Bottom” and is not afraid to be ridiculous, the essential foundation for good comedy.
I loved the fairies. Meservy’s Puck is alive and expressive in each onstage moment, full of mischief and shenanigans as she tries to dodge Oberon’s wrath. Titania’s fairy band is straight out of an ‘80’s movie, like Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal, and it works so well. The first appearance of the fairies had me in stitches, and Meservy’s performance in this scene is just pure fun. The scene between Bottom and Titania is also a crack-up. The actors with the fairies are quite imaginative in their quest to satisfy Bottom’s every request, while Bottom and Titania manage to emphasize the double entendre in the script and still keep it family-friendly.
The best words to describe this production are clever, clear, and creative. The stage may be bare, but the actors find many creative ways to pop up and enter, whether by using the trap door at the bottom or by poking their heads up from one of the ladders behind the curtain, which makes the set feel like a live character all on its own. The costumes are selected by the actors and hail from a wide variety of time periods and styles, which adds to the eclectic, free-spirited, rambunctious tone of the production and serves to distinguish the characters without overwhelming the actors. The Grassroots band scores the show with fun musical themes and sound effects, adding whimsy and humor to the production. While substantial cuts were made to the script, the language was clear and actors apt and flexible. There were a few skipped and flipped lines, but the actors were flexible and engaged enough to fly right over them, and if you don’t know the show as extensively as I do, you likely wouldn’t have noticed.
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Overall, I would say this production is as much an experience as anything else. Actors fully engage the audience and encourage the audience to be fully engaged with cheers, boos, sighs, and any other verbal response you want. The over-the-top, slapstick style in which the actors frequently talk directly to the audience makes for a very fun, fast-paced experience. The show really excels with audience engagement; however, due to the presentational style, actors do not engage as much with each other. Consequently, you don’t get the deep character and relationship development that you might from a different style of production. Overall, that doesn’t detract from the show much because highly developed onstage relationships aren’t the goal of the production. Rather, the goal is to create an authentic Elizabethan experience, which the troupe does very well, and I think Shakespeare would be proud.
Grab the kids, grab your honey, or grab your friends, and head out to the park for a fun night spent in the great outdoors laughing and enjoying the night. Then you’ll have reason to say with Philostrate, a character in the play, “More merry tears the passion of loud laughter never shed.”
Grassroots Shakespeare Company presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Various locations, including Orem City Center Park, Moab Arts Festival, SCERA Park, Liberty Park, Provo Duck Pond, International Peace Garden, Provo Pioneer Park, Daybreak, Nielsen’s Grove
Touring May 19-July 7, 7:00 PM
*Some tour locations have different performance times; see Facebook event for more details.
Tickets: Free, suggested donation $5
Grassroots Shakespeare Company on Facebook
GSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Facebook event
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