My occasional forays onstage in the service of the Bard began in the sixth grade as part of Oberon's train in an outdoor production played before a backdrop and wings hacked out of a rhododendron patch on the lawn downhill from a decaying Victorian mansion. Wearing costumes that had previously seen service on the Lost Boys, my friends and I had great fun teasing the girls from the local ballet school with rubber snakes, party blowers and a real turtle to the strains of Mendelssohn. We also infiltrated the audience and chanted the final couplet along with Robin Goodfellow. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is perhaps the most appealing work in the canon. The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's Tour of the Parks production this summer is an energetic ninety minute version, a bit short on poetry, but full of hijinks and good spirits. The cast members, an even dozen with collegiate Shakespearean experience, are put through their paces by director, Douglas Mercer, using various tropes familiar to audiences who've seen recent versions of the play aimed at school audiences. These work well. Community groups and neighborhood teens should appreciate them at 2pm on a summer afternoon.
Mercer, a recent MFA from B.U. with respectable prior credits in New York, Minneapolis, and Boston starts the play with his company asleep on stage, then wakes them for a 1950's modern dress interpretation of the play done in contemporary fashion, which means a lot of physical comedy and undressing by the young lovers, stoogery from the rude mechanicals, and poetry in passing from Theseus&Hippolyta/Oberon&Titania who are of course double cast. Jessica Curtright's clever costuming works best on the young lovers, sets off the rude mechanicals well enough, but could do more for the other world. There's the usual shortage of headgear. Christina Todesco's unit set is well conceived, but may not be fully realized. The design could use a low groundrow at the back, better furniture, and a changing tent right behind the platform. Neither designer gets program credit while the CSC Artistic Director gets half a page. This is probably a matter of printing deadlines, but still, credit where credit is due and there's always Xerox.
For the record, Philostrate and Moonshine aka Starveling have been cut, and Aegus only appears briefly in the opening. The fairie band is invisible--recorded by the cast--and Puck is limber dancer Margaret Katch in a parti-colored leotard. The other gender-switched role is Quince, played by Lissa Romaine in a broad Irish brogue. Matt Citron as Bottom refers to her as Patty (or Paddy), and seems to be pursuing some romantic interest there. The rest of Quince's "Pyramus & Thisbe" crew; Joshua Segovia as a beserk Lion, Paul Andersen as Thisbe in a poodle skirt, and Chris Butterfield as Wall; conspire to steal the end of the show in god order. Rydia Q. Vielehr is effectively seductive as Titania; John Russell as her Lord could use a top and a cummerbund for his Oberon garb, or a lot of sunscreen and more magic. His may be the hardest part to put over however and his verse is well-spoken.
At the core of the action, the young lovers form a tight ensemble. Matt Dickson's Demetrius has a touch of nerd; Stephen Squibb is more streetwise as his rival, Lysander. Elisa Gonzales brings the essential touch of spoiled brat to Hermia, the object their affection, whileDanielle Levanas plays rejected Helena with pluck. They're more convincing than the quartet who underplayed this winter for Martha Clarke at the ART. It might be interesting to see how the show develops by its last outing, August 1 on the big stage by the Parkman Bandstand in the afternoon before the last performance there of "Much Ado...", if we survive the DNC. "...About Nothing" starts July 10th.
Out in Concord, the Delphi to the Athens of America, Thomas Caron's underfunded Town Cow Theatre Company soldiers on with a more serious production of the seldom-seen "The Life & Death of King John". In their third season in narrow Ann Cunningham Park beside the Christian Science Church in Monument Square. With the director once again in the title role, they manage to get through this rewrite of history in under two hours. Using only natural light, backed by some commercial purple and black drapes plus the trees, and competing with commuter jets from nearby Hanscom Field, the company plays the verse with conviction. Costumed in modern black with a few accouterments like swords and crowns, with a freestanding stair case plus a small platform for the wooden arm chair which serves as a throne, a cast of 15 plays the courts of England and France, and all the machinations of this late Shakespearean historie.
The title character is pivotal to the action, but the most dynamic role belongs to Jay Newlon as the Bastard, Philip Faulconbridge, the illegitimate son of John's oldest brother, Richard Lionheart. The plot revolves around the support of Phillip of France, sturdily played by John McAullife for Prince Arthur, the young son of the middle brother, Geoffrey. The boy is well-played by Alexander Brako Sayde; his fiery mother Constance, who's pushing her son's kingship, is vividly portrayed by Town Cow regular Lida McGirr. Lis Adams is not quite her equal as the fabled Elinor of Aquitane, John's mother, who dies offstage leading her army in France near the end of the play. Young Sarah Morrison is convincing in her brief appearance as Princess Blanch, wed to the Dauphin for political expediency, while Pamela Dritt carries off the Bastard's mother with affrontery.
Among the younger actors, all of whom handle verse quite clearly, Kevin Shoemaker is dashing as Lewis, the Dauphin, while Chuck Schwager plays Chatillon, the Herald of France in the beginning, and returns to play a pivotal death scene at the end transferred to that character as per usual practice. Chris Lockheart plays three minor roles, and should at least be given a coronet for his final appearance as Prince Henry, John's son who doesn't appear in the play until then. Tony Dangerfield handles Cardinal Pandulph, displaying his years of experience, while Myron Feld makes Hubert from Angiers sympathetic and effective, and wears appropriate headgear. The whole cast should do so, particulary when doubling.
"King John" is one of the plays in the canon that really could use a prologue and a chorus. Absent that, the audience needs at least to get a geneology in the program to help sort out allegiances. The political machinations and bellicose patriotism of the piece are not so irrelevant today as they might have seemed not so long ago. Theatre groups like Town Cow deserve encouragement and support for bringing the lesser known plays before the public--they began with "Timon.."--as much as well-connected and showy civic efforts like Commonwealth Shakespeare. Check out the former's Website. Incidentally, this shoestring independent company is planning future productions of new and contemporary plays as well. Incidentally, Publick Theatre is opening their production of the also seldom-seen "Troilus & Cressida" on July 8, running through the DNC, after which they'll start "The Merchant of Venice" on July 29, and play both in repertory until Sept. 12