author: Wes Dennis & Liana Olear
How shall you beguile the lazy time, if not with some delight? Perhaps by running off to Silver Spring Stage for their performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and spending the evening with besotted Athenian lovers, pranking fairies, and those oddest of creatures, amateur actors!
The Director, Emma Hooks, shows a solid understanding of Shakespeare’s language, and her actors illustrate the words with enthusiastic action (though language purists – or audience members not expecting to hear multiple F-bombs punctuating the iambic pentameter – may not appreciate the choice to also insert modern phrases to add reactions where the bard neglected to spell them out). Hooks makes aware choices in tackling some of the play’s traditionally cringy aspects, like Demetrius’s initial disposition towards Helena, and the crux of the Fairy royals’ disagreement being the possession of a boy stolen from the king of India – in this version he’s a very good boy indeed, albeit a little ruff.
The set created by Jules Gross, who also designed the lights, comprises a magical wood of majestic light-adorned trees, setting the mood without overcomplicating or obstructing the action. Moreover, while more traditional than other aesthetic choices, the set plays especially well with the show’s innovations: Titania’s sylvan bower could easily double as the bedroom of a teenage girl with fabulously wealthy parents and a thing for woodland chic, and one can easily envision the culturally older Oberon settling in the forest some years back to benefit his Pokémon Go exploits.
Costume design by Brett Jordan juxtaposes Athenians’ Renaissance festival-esque garments with the fairy kingdom’s trendier threads in a way that intriguingly inverts the usual relationship between the commonplace and the strange. One generally expects to find the humans more familiar and the fairies more otherworldly, but here the choice to costume humans in faire garb and fairyland in modern clothes makes the audience a part of the fairy world – a choice supported by a subtle bit of audience interaction with Puck (Hope Weltman) asking an audience member to hang on to their scooter. (One imagines the audience also shows up in at least some of the MANY selfies the fairies take at various times; presumably in fairyland it’s a point of pride to be tagged in a Puck IG post!) In keeping with this translation of the story’s more fantastical elements, Bottom’s transformation is suitably asinine without encumbering his face with appliances that might get in the way of his munching the scenery (if not a feed bag of dry oats or sweet hay).
Naturally, this more modern spin on those spirits of another sort also entails an attitude adjustment for the social media age. Michael Howerton’s Oberon is interesting. He’s decidedly one of the cool kids, but he’s not committed to the performative elements to the extent that Puck and Titania are: his vibe is more reminiscent of Zack Morris or Parker Lewis than the protagonists of recent Netflix teen dramas. Meanwhile, as Titania, Margaret Anne Murphy also harks more to a not-too-distant yesteryear than the current focus on reels and clips; she and her entourage are more into slumber parties and stuffed animals (per our jokes above, the disputed Indian boy appears here as a plush puppy). And then there’s Hope Weltman’s Puck, who derives their speed from a collapsible scooter and is constantly striking poses and snapping selfies. It’s as if each fairy hails from his/her/their own corner of (recent-ish) past and present youth/media culture, and Howerton, Murphy, and Welton approach their archetypes with understanding and zeal. It’s super effective!
The lovers – Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia, respectively played by Hart Wood, Daniel Riker, Anabel Milton, and Sofia Sandoval – exhibit impressive chemistry and physical comedy that go a long way toward making them sufficiently endearing: even though some of us are really there for the fairies, the actors do a fantastic job of making us care about the lovers’ plights and want to see them happy in the end. Milton is particularly adept at balancing Helena’s conflicting desire and mistrust with cheeky physicality.
Elgin Martin (who also doubles as a background fairy) has an appealing presence as Theseus. While one wouldn’t entirely call his air “commanding,” he’s clearly a confident and competent ruler (though certain facial expressions and intonations suggest he might not always be enamored of the responsibility). His bride Hippolyta, played by the expressive Stephanie Ichniowski also seen as the fairy Moth, supplements her few lines with looks that clearly convey her assessments of her regal mate’s choices.
And of course there are the Rude Mechanicals! Whether he’s playing Flute in the play within the play or Philostrate in court, Alan Gonzalez Bisnes is a delight as he gamely embraces the silliness of his roles. Celia Richardson’s Snug the Joiner amuses as the lion – let her roar again, indeed! Similarly (to continue to borrow words from the Bard), Paul Brewster (who also doubles as Egeus) as Snout is among the wittiest partitions I’ve ever heard discourse, and his nonplussed expressions effectively added to the humor of the Mechanicals’ performance. Finally, Mark Frantz captures the essence of Bottom with a portrayal that is just all stripes of insufferable. He’s so good at seeming obnoxious that he’d run the risk of alienating the audience were it not for Hooks’s solid direction and the excellence of the ensemble cast: Titania notably excepted, the other characters respond to Bottom with such palpable exasperation that one can’t help but laugh. Whether audiences are laughing at Bottom or simply enjoying the suffering he inflicts upon his fellow players is unclear, but the effort poured into these scenes is undeniable. Finally, as Peter Quince, Katie Rey Bogden gives an especially solid performance. While Bottom’s antics generally garner the most attention, the Mechanicals’ ever-capable director does a lot of heavy lifting during those scenes. Bogden’s unraveling as the rehearsals and play within a play go off the rails are understated and yet integral parts of these scenes, figuratively underscoring every humorous bit with a sigh and a sotto voce “WTF.”
All in all, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Silver Spring Stage is a worthy presentation of the Bard’s classic supernatural comedy. While this may not be the leanest or most inspired cut of the script itself and the pacing is more expansive than sprightly, the staging and aesthetic touches are clever and the actors’ approaches do render the text more accessible, making this both a production Shakespeare aficionados can appreciate and an especially good Midsummer introduction for teenagers and older audiences unfamiliar with the play. If you, like Puck, are pleased by things that befall preposterously, it really is a fun production – and considering that there’s (probably) little risk of the Chinese government surveilling your activities in the theater, you could absolutely be doing worse things with a TikTok flavor. This particular show is worth the clicks.
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Running Time: 2 hours with one intermission
A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays through April 28th 2024 at Silver Spring Stage— 10145 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20901. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 301-593-6036 or by purchasing them in advance online.
