The Lurking Place of E. Rochelle Potter
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Will Kempe’s Players have returned full-throttle! Their 2019 season opened with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, most appropriately on the eve of the solstice. While previous engagements prevented me from attending opening night, I made it to their Sunday show. I’ve been eagerly anticipating their return and believe me, they did not disappoint!
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While some faces among the cast were familiar and others I’d glimpsed at their auditions in February and hoped to see in this show were absent entirely, there were many fresh new ones this season and that excites me. Seeing that so many new people had taken interest and gained opportunity to share in the amazing process that is Original Practices Shakespeare was encouraging. I took great pleasure witnessing the talent displayed by these newcomers. Kristoph DiMaria did a superb job in his directorial debut and I would also like to give major props to Sandy Boynton, Savannah Blum and Shae Fitzgerald for the stunning costumes created for this show. Puck was especially amazing!
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream has always been among my favorite of Shakespeare’s works. Eloping lovers, unrequited emotions, hidden faerie kingdoms, delightfully fiendish pranks and the players playing players playing a play within the play (have fun with that one)—what is there to not enjoy?
Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena
(Andria Rabinold, Andrew Vrooman, Michael Sinkora & Angelina Castro)
fall into enchanted slumber.
Ahhh, Athens in the summer, the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, birds are singing…and disobedient daughters are put to death for the foolish mistake of having hearts of their own. You know, ‘cause that’s fair. Don’t you just love archaic laws?
Fair Hermia, is so enamored with her doting Lysander, you’d think they would be a perfect match but daddy says no, no, no, silly girl, you must marry Demetrius because that’s what I want you to do. And oh, by the way: if you don’t obey my command you can either die or become a nun, and he’ll implore Thesius, the Duke of Athens, to be sure things go his way. So what’s a self-respecting couple in love to do? Why elope, of course!
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Poor Helena is Hermia’s best friend and sick with hopeless devotion to Demetrius. She worships the very ground he walks and would happily accept a daily kick to the face from him if it meant that he noticed her. Alas, alack though: in his eyes she is second-rate. (Raise your hand if you’ve been THERE before!) She gets the grand notion that spilling the beans about Hermia’s pending elopement with Lysander will somehow make Demetrius more gracious toward her but is rewarded only with continuing to chase after him as he pursues the lovers into the woods. None of them know what they are about to encounter.
Titania (Katrina Ute Wilkinson) and Oberon (Micahel A. Lake engage in dispute over a changeling boy.
Pease-blossome, Moth, Mustard-seede, Cattail & Cobweb; Queen Titania's Faerie Court
(Phillip T. Beattie, Harry Reid, David Perez,
Devin Trager, & Susan Preiss
Oberon, the jilted faerie king is miffed with his queen Titania for not giving up a favored changeling to him. So he devises a plan to trick her into giving him up. Employing the aid of his minion Puck, he instructs that a flower from Cupid be procured that will be placed upon Titania’s eyes, the end result in mind being that she will fall madly in love with the first person she sees.
My eyebrows were literally raised by the wonderfully-executed displays of sleight of hand in these scenes on the part of Oberon. A flower goes from white to purple, and later the flower goes from plant to potion in a vial and the transition is seamless! Bravo!
However, Oberon happened to notice Helena’s fruitless plight as she followed Demetrius into the forest and he tells Puck to anoint “the Athenian’s eyes” with the potion as well with the intent that Demetrius will see Helena and fall as in love with her as she is with him, thereby bringing her hapless heartsickness to a happy conclusion. Here is where the real fun begins!
Oberon (Michael A. Lake) plots with his minion Puck (Shae Fitzgerald)
Midsummer is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays and as such I've seen it performed numerous times by different companies. Puck has been a long-time personal favorite character of mine since I was a kid. There’s something about his wily, trickster ways that has always appealed to me. I feel like Puck is oft misunderstood. Yes, he enjoys playing pranks but it’s all in good humor. He likes to laugh because it feels good. Nobody ever really gets hurt so where’s the harm?​
That being said, I've seen performances over the years where I found the portrayal of this beloved character lacking. Being disappointed by a Puck literally saddens me. I must say here and now that I've never enjoyed Puck more than the one in this performance. This Puck is near-perfect! His glee in the chaos he creates is palpable. He's not out to hurt anyone, he just wants to have a good time and he wants YOU to have a good time with him!
Puck stalks unseen among the troupe of players. Snug practices his Lion and Flute ponders how to play Thisbe
(Left to right: Harry Reid, Shae Fitgerald and Devin Trager)
Puck naturally accepts the task put before him with great delight. He stumbles upon a hodge-podge troupe of performers, met in the woods to rehearse a play, intended for Thesius’s nuptial day and seizes the opportunity to make even more mischief. The main player of this company is Nick Bottom and let me tell you, I feel no shame in admitting that as much as I adore Puck, I have never seen a more hilarious Bottom. From this point forward he pretty much steals the show, which is both a remarkable accomplishment as well as an unexpected and new experience for me. Sorry, I refuse to give out any spoilers on this subject! Go see for yourself while you can! WKP is running this show through August after all and I guarantee you will be so happy you did!
Puck transfigures Bottom into a man with the head and tail of an ass (incredibly appropriate) and poor Bottom is left all alone as his friends flee in terror. Puck anoints Titania's sleeping eyes with the enchanted flower and Bottom unwittingly becomes the first thing she sees upon awakening. Titania literally falls in love with an ass. Bottom's takes no issue with the attentions she lavishes upon him and enjoys being waited upon hand and foot by the rest of her faerie court.
Mary Catherine Mahoney as Nick Bottom makes you laugh so hard your sides hurt!
(Left to right in back: Devin Trager as Flute, Phillip T. Beattie as their director Peter Quince, Susan Preiss as Snout and Harry Reid as Snug)
Puck moves on in search of the Athenian. He finds Hermia and Lysander, mistakenly believing he has the correct man. (Come on, how many Athenians could possibly be running about the woods at night anyway?) Upon awakening though, Lysander sees not Hermia first but Helena, who became lost while following Demetrius. He instantly falls bewitchingly in love with Helena and abandons Hermia, much to her befuddlement when she wakes up to find herself all alone.
Puck makes sure that Bottom is the first thing Titania sees when she wakes.
When Oberon realizes Puck’s folly, he takes measures to place the flower on Demetrius’s eyes himself and Helena suddenly finds BOTH men madly in love with her. She doesn’t know what to think other than that they are merely making fun of her unhappy lot in life, and furthermore believes Hermia is in on this farce as well. Helena is a walking oxymoron by times in that she is tragically comic. Her confused and mixed emotions are artfully juggled and, taken to the brink of opposite extremes, making you feel amusement and pity simultaneously. The entire quartet of crossed lovers compliment each-others' performances well. There is a building tempo as sparks fly through the air and the resultant cat-fight between Helena and Hermia was the physical crescendo. SO much fun to watch! But wait! There's more!
Why Helena, you look so lovely this evening.
Lysander having been mistaken by Puck for the correct Athenian sees Helena first when he awakes.
(Angelina Castro and Andrew Vrooman)
Oberon and Puck watch the chaos.
Demetrius is suddenly aggressively in love with Helena, the lover he spurned.
(Angelina Castro and Michael Sinkora)
Lysander don't leave me!
Poor Hermia is so confused.
(Andria Rabinold and Andrew Vrooman)
Lysander holds Hermia back as she and Helena quarrel and Demetrius looks on.
(Andrew Vrooman, Andria Rabinold, Angelina Castro and Michael Sinkora
Oberon ultimately gains what he sought and sets Puck to putting things right. Puck makes all fall into enchanted sleep. He removes the elixir from Lysander's eyes, ensuring he will once more love Hermia. Demetrius is kept bewitched so he will stay in love with Helena. The spell is also removed from Titania and Bottom is restored to his former self—er, almost.
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Everyone awakes believing they’ve had the strangest of dreams and they return to Athens for Thesius’ wedding to Hyppolyta. At the feast, Bottom and the rest of his troupe are brought in to perform Pyramus and Thisbe and my only lamentation about this entire show was that at this point my phone died and I was unable to take ANY pictures of this! Another excellent reason to go see it for yourself!
Laughably creative costume choices were employed here and the entire performance of the play within the play was one of the funniest things I've seen in my life. (Lion, Thisbe and of course Bottom as Pyramus were particular favorites here, but Wall and Moonshine were also incredibly entertaining, as were the reactions from Peter Quince.)
The show concludes on the happiest of notes. Everyone ultimate gets what they desired and Puck addresses us directly, assuring that if any offense was made, we are all but dreaming. I defy you to walk away without a smile on your face!
Several performances are scheduled between now and the end of August. Check out their Facebook page for a show near you or visit their website www.willkempesplayers.com for a complete listing. Even if it’s not exactly NEAR you, the WKP experience is well worth the trip! I myself traveled from Fort Ann to Troy just to see them and will gladly travel again. I very much hope to see this show again before it closes because it is simply that enjoyable! Be on the lookout for upcoming performances of Hamlet as well! (Yes, you will hear more about this later!)
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