Posted by quinn
on August 25, 2009, 5:19 pm, in reply to "Dream Reviews"
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Globe and Mail Review Aug. 24, 2009
(NOTE: The Globe and Mail allows comments to their reviews)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/this-dream-is-the-best-bard-of-the-summer/article1261877/
This Dream is the best Bard of the summer
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
A Midsummer Night's Dream Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by David Grindley
Starring Geraint Wyn Davies, Yanna McIntosh, Dion Johnstone
***
There is much to recommend in David Grindley's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with its straitlaced 1950s lovers, melancholy mechanicals and rock 'n' roll fairies. The visiting British director, lately of Broadway, may only get two of the play's three strands right, but his production is entertaining, full of insight and never half-assed - well, except, of course, for Bottom.
He seems the right place to begin: Geraint Wyn Davies gives a truly classic turn as the enthusiastic amateur actor whose top half Puck transforms into a donkey. Soft-headed and soft-spoken, his Bottom is an earnest buffoon that you laugh at and feel protective of at the same time.
Avoiding mugging and underplaying the most famous bits, Davies's wonderful performance reminds us that though Bottom may lack in self-awareness, he is also more aware of what is going on than any of the other characters in Dream. He is, after all, the only human in the play able to perceive the fairies. (The only other humans who can do so are the audience, infer from that what you will.)
Davies is surrounded by as funny and gentle a group of "rude mechanicals" as you will ever see, André Sills's Snug the Joiner being the cuddliest of all.
Their play-ending production of The Most Lamentable Comedy and Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe is side-splitting - what they do with the Wall is base and ingenious - but, more astonishingly, includes moments of heartfelt emoting from the tradesmen-turned-thespians.
To be touched in the midst of this hilarity was such a pleasant surprise, and it revealed the mockers Lysander, Demetrius and Theseus as the spoiled frat-boy bullies they are. To suggest that there might be actual merit in amateur art is a generous gesture from the country's foremost professional theatre.
There is also fine work from the lovers: Hermia (Sophia Walker) and Lysander (Bruce Godfree), whose love is reciprocated but legally forbidden, and Demetrius (Ian Lake) and Helena (Laura Condlln), whose loves are unrequited.
The standouts are Condlln, a sarcastic Helena who actually gets down on all fours and pants when she offers herself up as a spaniel to Demetrius, and the energetic and rubbery Godfree who - when stripped of his trousers in a duel - claims the prize for second-best bottom of the production.
As for the fairy world, well, here is where Grindley's production grinds to a halt. Inhabiting a dark forest murkily lit by Michael Walton, they are a mix of punks and goths with a hint of glam rock (though the music Rick Fox has composed for them is generic and without rhythm). Turning Dream's fairies into countercultural musicians is not a fresh idea and, even when it was, not a particularly good one. Cool is a human posture and, despite the propaganda to the contrary, the opposite of wild and unconformist. These spirits are lethargic, not spritely, and though they gyrate and rub against one another, they are awfully sexless. Perhaps this is the influence of Mad Men seeping through, but the conservative dress and neat hairstyles of the lovers are a dozen times hotter than the fairies' leather, tattoos and tangled nests of hair.
Tom Rooney's Puck is the best of the bunch, prancing about on his toes like the unholy love child of a threesome between Andy Warhol, David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Yanna McIntosh's Titania is surprisingly non-descript, while Dion Johnstone's passionless Oberon is dressed not like the King of the Fairies, but the King of Pop on the cover of Thriller. Too soon? Well, at least it finally explains why Oberon is so obsessed with getting his hands on Titania's changeling boy.
Elsewhere, Grindley makes more interesting choices - ones that aren't shoehorned in, but spring from the script.
There is for, instance, the appearance of autumn leaves and snow in this midsummer madness. This is not just an accurate reflection of the disappointing summer we've had, but of the fairy-made climate change Titania notes that her lover's quarrel with Oberon has caused:
...the spring, the summer,/ The childing autumn, angry winter, change/ Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,/ By their increase, now knows not which is which:..."
Grindley might have highlighted this line a little more clearly to avoid confusion in the audience, but still it's nice to have a director who's actually plumbed the text for ideas.
Similarly, he's done compelling work with the Athenian royalty. Theseus and his conquered bride Hippolyta - the fine Timothy D. Stickney and Cara Ricketts - are characters usually ignored or doubled with the fairy king and queen.
Designer Jonathan Fensom's set, however, is a mixed blessing. It is a replica of the old Tanya Moiseiwitsch balcony that, as the lovers move into the forest, topples to the ground and smashes a hole in the centre of Stratford's thrust stage.
I appreciate the sentiment: Stratford's design history deserves respect, but a bit of a cult has arisen around it. Still, the gesture is a little self-aggrandizing - this production is the best Bard of the summer, but hardly revolutionary - and the awkward giant V left in the centre of the stage is problematic. It serves as a playful jungle gym for a while, but then simply gets in the way - and the absence of a more natural setting is felt.
A Midsummer's Night Dream continues at the Festival Theatre until Oct. 30.
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