“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Highly Recommended ***** Over the years, many lovers of the works of Shakespeare have classified “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as the one play that even non-lovers of his work can enjoy. The new re-imaginationed version that opened at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier last night makes it even more so. Shakespeare’s works are hundreds of years old and yet, this comedy still makes us laugh. Directed by Joe Dowling who brings some new twists to the production, this sterling 2 and a half hours of theater is bright and witty. In fact, one might call it “magical”.

The visual part of the production ( set by Todd Rosenthal) is at first stayed, but when it opens to the enchanted garden of delights, powerful! The story is one about love. Theseus, Duke of Athens (Edward O’Blenis, who later becomes Oberon, King of the Fairies) is to wed Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons ( played to perfection by Alexandra Silber, who shines even brighter when she becomes Titania, Queen of the Fairies). One of his leaders Egeus ( the always reliable William Dick) comes to him about a family situation. His daughter, Hermia (Melisa Soledad Pereyra) refuses to marry the soldier Demetrius (deftly handled by Eric Schabla). It appears that she has fallen in love with another of his men, Lysander ( Tyrone Phillips). To make the triangle even more complicated, we have Helena ( adorably played by Cristina Panfilio) who is in love with Demetrius.

The Duke informs Hermia that she must marry Demetrius, become a nun, or die. She passes on these options in favor of running off with her true love, Lysander and they run towards the woods Demetrius follows them and so does Hermia trying to lure Demetrius to love her. At the same time, Oberon has summoned his fairy servant , Puck ( a powerful performance by Sam Kebede, who truly makes this role his) to fetch the seeds of the flower that will entice his love Titania to sleep, and upon waking, fall in love with the first person she sees.

There is another story as well. That of some local amateur actors who are hoping to perform a play for Theseus on his wedding day. It is one of these actors that Puck decides will be the perfect one to be fallen for by Titania. His name Nick Bottom ( a wonderful performance by T.R.Knight, who many might recognize from TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”, who truly is the best Bottom I have seen since the film version with Joe E. Brown). What happens between Bottom , who has been transformed into a donkey and Titania is adorable, but even more comical is that the young couples are also sprayed by the playful Puck and therein lies the comedy.

Meanwhile, back to the actors and their play. After it appears that all is well, we do get to see the play within a play, dealing with unrequited love and in which Knight truly shines as Bottom playing  the lover. The rest of the troupe is made up of Joe Dempsey as Peter Quince, the director, the always reliable Jonathan Butler-Duplesis as “the wall”, Sara Sevigny as Robin Starveling, William Dick as Snug the Joiner and Alec Silver as Francis Flute, who is forced to play the female lead. They are incredible! The 15 minute play-within-a-play is hysterical and not to be missed.

As always, the tech side of this production is beautiful with amazing costumes (Fabio Toblini), lighting (Greg Hoffman & Jesse Klug), Music )composed and directed by Keith Thomas) and sound (Christopher M. Laporte). The choreography (Joe Chvala) and the original music do add to the flavor of a more modern version of a play that is hundreds of years old (probably 1595 ) and as always Chicago Shakespeare Theater brings us the highest quality .

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will continue at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier thru January 27th. Great Holiday fare for the family.

Performances are:

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 312-595-5600

www.chicagoshakes.com

Tickets range from $48-$88

ACCESS SHAKESPEARE performances are:

January 3rd-open-captioning  1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

January 13th  Audio-description 2 p.m. touch-tour at noon

January 18th, ASL Duo-interpretation  7:30 p.m.

Discounted parking in the garage at Navy Pier ( bring ticket to box office lobby for validation.

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“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.