The season for lighter weight Shakespeare is upon us, with ASP doing "All's Well That Ends Well" in Cambridge at Durrell Hall and HTC about to open "Love's Labors Lost" downtown at the Mystic. The Hovey Players out in Waltham, who manage to get touch base with the Bard every couple of years, are doing a brisk version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in their intimate basement with a ensemble of one dozen local actors. Free of concept and costumed in a timeless mode, this production has a few modern moments, starting with Melissa Sine and Chris Cardoni dueling with broadswords as Hippolyta and Theseus. The amazon is winning until Puck, played androgynously by Leigh Berry interferes. Sine and Cardoni appear later as Titania and Oberon, following current practice. The young lovers are played by Michele Estrada and Grace Sumner as petite dark Hermia and tall fair Helena, with Evan Bernstein and Brian Busch as young swells Lysander and Demetrius. The latter is preferred for Hermia's hand by her father Egeus, played by Eric Houghton. Houghton appears later as Snug the Joiner, one of the "rude mechanicals."
The rest of these comedians, who aim to present a short "tragedy" about Pyramus and Thisbe at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding are Jason Beals as bumptious Nick Bottom the weaver, the group's leading player, ; Claude Del as Francis Flute; Karen Dervin as Peter Quince, the instigator of their play, and Michael P. Soulios as Snout. Soulios also doubles as Philostrate, Theseus' major domo. In this production, Quince plays the Wall, substituting that character's introduction for the original apologetic prologue. Snout plays Moonshine waving his lantern about, Snug is the original cowardly Lion, while Beals and Del are Pyramus and Thisbe. As usual, this motley crew comes close to stealing the show, with Beals' Bottom mugging all the way. Throughout the rest of play, Berry's Puck fills that position quite nicely
Director Michelle M. Aguillon has done a thorough and thoughtful job of presenting the premarital conflicts inherent in the comedy without trying for any deep commentary, letting the farce speak for itself. Her ensemble of experienced performers. with Sine and Beals together again, handles the language, including the rhyme, effectively once they get warmed up. Michelle Boll's painted forest on John MacKenzie's set of wings with a cutout backdrop sets a storybook mood. Abbott Hall's low ceiling makes borders impossible and Mackenzie copes with the minimal lighting as usual. Titania's "bower" almost offstage right is perhaps not the best solution for that location, but the main stage is left free for acting. Even twelve performers is a big cast on this stage. Kimmerie H.O. Jones's costumerie let the cast play their multiple roles, though more physical distinction and a few costume props would enhance things.
Hovey's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a competitive entry in the current field which will be complete when the Huntington opens "Love's Labors Lost" in a week. Incidentally, several summer theatre groups in the area will be tackling the latter this summer, while the Hovey moves on to their annual Festival of New Works at the end of July. The biggest production of the summer will be Commonwealth's "Taming of the Shrew" reportedly set in the North End, but there are plenty of other options including Concord's Town Cow production of "Measure for Measure" al fresco just off Monument Sq. next to a church. The Publick Theatre however isn't doing anything from the canon, but rather a West Coast comedy entitled "The Beard of Avon," a take on the Oxfordian claims. ASP will be reviving last fall's "KIng Lear" for a limited run at LaMama. Maybe they'll get into the summer Shakespeare some year.