Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is supposed to take place as a dream on a summer night in a wooded forest, so it’s befitting that Midsomer Flight is presenting the comedy in a park setting during mid-summer.
What could be more appropriate than watching the laugh-filled fantasy of love gone awry among the verdant trees, foliage, and silky grass of a city park.
Part of the Chicago Park District’s “Night Out in the Parks” series, the magical tale revolves around romantics whose love becomes misplaced when they come upon a fairy in the Athenian forest.
Although the play was written more than four centuries ago, its popularity continues because the idea of mismatched partners is not only universal but resonates today as much as it did in 1595 when Shakespeare penned it. Indeed, it seems to be part and parcel of human nature for the wrong people to always be falling in love with the wrong people.
The story features a royal Athenian couple, Theseus (Joshua Pennington) and Hippolyta (Meredith Ernst), who also portray Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the forest fairies. The other romantic couples are Helen (Koshie Mills) and Demetrius (Manny Sevilla), and Hermia (Alice Wu) and Lysander (Richard Eisloeffel).
The trouble begins when Puck (Ebby Offord), a mischievous spirit, gets his orders from Oberon mixed up. Puck is supposed to squirt a magic potion into the eyes of particular lovers, but accidentally pours the potion into the wrong characters. No longer does Lysander love Hermia; now he’s in love with Helena, and Titania, whom Oberon wanted to teach a lesson, falls in love with a braying ass.
The entanglements are unusual, but Lysander tries to explain it away with “The course of true love never did run smooth.” In addition, Helena tries to make sense of it all when she says: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.”
That’s a most important line because it gets to the heart of the play’s meaning: Love is a powerful force that cannot be explained and often makes no sense. Indeed, love is often irrational, which is why, since human nature never changes, Shakespeare’s play remains relevant in every age.
While all the performances are well done, Jack Morsovillo stands out as a hoot of an ass with whom Titania is smitten, and Ebby Offord is a charmer as Puck, especially when making the most insightful comment on the human condition with “What fools these mortals be.”
To add to the mirth of the comedy, Shakespeare has added a sub-plot in which everyday artisans, the “rude mechanicals,” decide to entertain Theseus and Hippolyta on the occasion of their marriage. They do so with a farcical play titled, “Pyramus and Thisby.”
These mechanicals are named according to their occupations, and perform multiple roles as musicians, fairies, and characters in the Pyramus and Thisby tale. The mechanicals include Nick Bottom, the weaver (Morsovillo); Peter Quince, the carpenter and organizer (Barry Irving); Francis Flute, the bellows-mender (Travis Shanahan); Snug, the joiner (Hannah Mary Simpson); Tom Snout, a tinker (Elizabeth McAnulty Quilter); and Starveling, a tailor (Kat Zheng).
Staged by Midsommer Flight’s founding artistic director, Beth Wolf, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is performed in the same way as it was in Shakespeare’s day. It is being presented during sunlit afternoons or under stars at night and is enhanced by Nina Castillo-D’Angier’s set design and props, Lily Walls’s period costumes, and Justin Cavazos’s evocative music.
A big difference between this production and the original is that, in Shakespeare’s time, it ran for about three hours, while this modern version has been tightened to a smooth, fast one hour and 40 minutes.
Moreover, the performance is free, which, in our inflationary times, makes the outing even more inviting. Reservations are not required. Just show up with a picnic spread, spirits, and blankets or chairs for a great romantic date or a family outing.
