Words and photos by David Warfield
Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrious, Demetrius loves Hermia but used to love Hellena, but Hermia loves Lysander, and Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius or else it’s get thee to a nunnery or, as an alternative, death. Add Puck, a ton of cute fairies, and a Laurel and Hardy army of Athenian Laborers and you’ve got the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s dream.
The production is staged at the Patapsco Female Institute (once a boarding school, now a stunning, restored stone ruins, reportedly haunted) in Ellicott City. The production, alternating with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (the head-spinningly condensed attention-span classic) runs to till July 24, so get thee to a female institute!
This is Shakespeare under the stars, except for the Sunday 6pm Matinee. If you have kids, this is the best. Kids are free, and there’s a ton of fun stuff before/during /after. Our little girl Sara was able to hang out with the actors on stage after the show and she was quite thrilled about it. All good, except now she wants to be an actor. (I was hoping for options trader…)
Director Ian Gallanar orchestrates the CSC beautifully. The company cast, including Jose Guzman, Molly Moores, James Jager, David Tabish, and many other terrific performers, are so totally good and fun to watch. The thrill for me was the beauty of the language that alternately reveals human folly and celebrates human passion. The triple entendre play-within-a-play parody and linguistic acrobatics, the bawdy romance and deft insight… Well, if you haven’t had a Shakespeare fix in a while, or even if you have, go.
For me, now 14 days out from shooting my movie, ROWS it was a much needed break from the rigors of pre-production. I’m still looking for the right woman to play HAVILAND in ROWS, a sort of twisted Aunt Bea/ Judy Dench/ Margaret Hamilton type. I was kinda hoping I would see a terrific older actress, but A Midsummer Night’s Dream doesn’t really have such a character.
Any ideas?
Words and photos by David Warfield
