It’s been a while since A Midsummer Night’s Dream was last performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. For many Festival-goers this early comedy by Shakespeare is their favorite. It’s a flexible play that can be given many interpretations.
My memories carry me back through decades to a very dreamy show at the Elizabethan theater. On a set inspired by the art of Maxwell Parrish, Titania and Oberon seemed to be perched on a tree branch in front of a gigantic moon. From a completely different angle, another production gave us Pyramus and Thisbe performed by a group of tie-dyed hippies after they pushed their VW bus onstage.
This year’s show might be remembered as the most frenzied and ear-blasting version. As directed by Marcela Lorca, the action explodes all over the place. Fairies, young lovers, royalty, and craftsmen who are amateur actors share a world of magic, romance and petty revenge. During an action-packed evening, two pairs of young lovers get lost in the woods and briefly switch partners due to a special flower. By dawn all is well.
The Shakespeare Festival in the spring attracts busloads of high school students cut free to discover great theater. Naturally they love Bottom the weaver, who’s always in trouble. He’s the guy who has to wear a donkey’s head for a magical evening of romance with the queen of the fairies. I read recently that Bottom has the most lines of anyone in the play. Al Espinosa, the versatile actor who portrays him, has two other roles in Come from Away. He may be the busiest actor this season.
