. 1991 - North Shore News

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FRIEND recently ask-
ed why | go to the
theatre,
I pondered, then cophed. ‘to
engage my imagination.” And if
ever a play succeeded at that it
was last Saturday's A Atidsummer
Night’s Dream.

y

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

Performed outside in Vanier
Park as the evening sun faded toa
deep, dreamy blue, it was truly an
enchanting evening.

Director Scott Swan kindles the
audience's imagination and draws
them in as active participants in a
drama where the real and the
unreal merrily co-mingle.

The play succeeds on a number
of levels.

First off, it is very accessible to
those with only a scant grounding
in Shakespeare. And all the actors
are competent in their execution
of Shakespearian language.

Mara Gottler’s costumes must be
included as a major contribution
to the production’s magical aura.
The fantastical realm of the faeries
is beautifully conveyed through
opulent, flowing fabrics (rippled
by the ocean breeze off English
Bay) and fanciful headpieces
adorned with glimmering sparkles
and exotic bird feathers,

The fabrics work with the styliz-
ed movement of the Queen and
King of the Faeries as they enter
almost liquidly from below the
stage, as if rising Gut of the earth,
their robes fluttering behind them.

it's a very physical production
— characters interact with the au-
dience, roll, jump and leap off the
stage into oblivion. Chimes tinkle
when the faeries speak; gag noises
and funny whistles sound cheekily
trom offstage. Everything seems
cheerily in place among the chaos.

Swan puts a modern twist on the
tour love-struck youth, Helena,
Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius,
by making them modern-dressed
trendies.

Because these characters are re-
ally only sketchy personages, it
works, adding new comedic ele-
ments heretofore unexplored
(Lysander heaves Hermia’s ex-
cessive baggage around the forest),
and reminding us that, historically,
young love was as silly and irra-
tional then as it is now.

The pratfails and chases be-
tween the lovers is sheer camp, al-
though in the scene between
Demetrius and Hermia, it was ap-
proaching overkill.

The movement of the faeries
slithering and tumbling across the
stage was very effective in convey-
ing the sensual faery world, con-
trasting with the formal
uprightness and rational word of
the Athenians.

Swan has a strong cast, capable
ot highly competent ensemble
work. They obviously share
Swan's vision for the play.

Scott Bellis Combines in Puck
the electricity and lightness of a
sprite, an almost wicked Caprice,
but a keenness, too, in observing
the behavior ot the mortals and
faery leaders, He is the mediator
between audience and players,
the only character distanced fram

y

FEATURED AMONG the fine

oheto David Cooper
performances of A Midsummer

Night's Dream are (left to right) Christopher Gaze as Bottom,
Merrilyn Gann as Titania and Sandra Ferens as Peaseblossoni.

the antics.

He recklessly sows his charms,
then restores the characters and
audience to reality “If we
shadows have offended,/Think but
this, and all is mended:/That you
have but slumb’red here, While

larious oddballs.

The energy builds all the way
through as the audience watches
the play proper in which the
taeries watch the laughable drama
of the lovers, the rustics parady
lovers in their own play and the

Athenians watch the rustics’ play
in which they upwittingly parody
themselves.

You emerge trom A Midsummer
Night's Dream as trom under a
laver of images, language and
sound linked together by the in-
ternal logic of the dream, an expe-
rience unscrutinizable by the
awake, order-sceking mind.

Get thee to tt anon.

these visions did appear.

l enjoyed Chris Humphreys’
performance as Oberon and
Theseus, as well as Laurier
Dubeau, Jeffrey Renn, Denyse
Wilson and Gabrielle Le Forestier
as the young lovers.

Christopher Gaze, in the show-
stealing role of Bottom the
Weaver, is the height of hilarity
among an ensemble of equally he

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