Familiar with Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”? Very likely you are, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s brilliant seasonal adaptation is going to be high on your hit parade of new favorites. Get your tickets now, then come back. I’ll wait.
You know you’re in for something special when you walk in and see Brian Ruggaber’s set, framed as if it were a snow globe. It is wond’rous round and it even feels chilly regardless of the temperature of the room. We are treated to an inside seat to the impending nuptials of Hippolyta and Oberon and it is going to be quite the ride!
Yao Chen’s costumes permit the glorious movement of the cast – sometimes balletic, always playful and as antic a group as ever was. If you are already familiar with much of the language of the play, the changes are subtle and fun. Shakespeare’s play is adapted by Bonnie Monte and Joseph Discher with dazzling wit and aplomb. This is Bonnie Monte’s parting gift to us as she winds down her tenure as Artistic Director and what a gift it is! When you listen closely, you will hear Easter eggs, little surprises that differ from Shakespear’s original. One of my favorites referenced climate change. Brian B. Crowe directs and that’s when you know you’re in for something really different, and a lasting memory.
Most of the cast are familiar faces. Relative newcomers René Thornton, Jr as Theseus/Oberon and Emily Chang as Hermia/Snowpea are in their first season and I expect we’ll see more of them. Ms. Chang’s feisty Hermia scintillates sparks with Fiona Robberson’s Helena – there’s no fight like a bestie fight since we know where all the soft spots are to wound. David Foubert’s Nick Bottom is superb and all of the mechanicals including Jeffrey Marc Alkins, Darin F. Earl II, James Francis Egbert, Foubert, Keith Hale and Eric Hoffman are all clearly having a great time and that means that we all are having a great time. Leading men Christian Frost and Isaac Hickox-Young are dashing then hilarious by turns, when their affections turn on a dime. Jessica Ires Morris as Hippolyta/Titania is a steel hand in a velvet glove. When Oberon and Puck’s scheme has her making an ass-umption, the limerence is intoxicating.
While the set is spare, the laughs are many and the orchestrator of much of it is Billie Wyatt’s Puck. Her characterization of “that merry wanderer” sparkles like moonlight on snow. Her intentional making of extra mischief is contagious, and her sense of “UH-oh” when she realizes her mixup with which Athenian is priceless. You may want to get two sets of tickets – you will want to see this show again before it’s over.
Get your tickets now for your choice of shows through December 31. Give those you love a different kind of “Mechanical” this Holiday season. Tarry not and visit https://www.shakespearenj.org/ for the best gift ever.