HALCYON AND ON AND ON
Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent’s vibrant, pulsing production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream transforms the woods outside Athens into a 1990s dance floor. With throbbing club beats (sound design by Mackenzie Adamick), fairies dressed in glitter and leather (costumes by Seth Bodie), and a gender-fluid aesthetic of hedonism, this Dream hums with energy and buzzes with bodies in motion, portraying desire as delightfully dangerous.
The cast of Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The cast
Eliza Fichter and Dan Garcia
Alan Kuang’s breakdancing Puck is a blur of color and motion. Deb Martin, as Helena, is all arms, legs, and longing in her pursuit of De’Lon Grant‘s Demetrius. Doug Lockwood delivers an over-the-top Nick Bottom—he’s been made into an ass, but he’s having the time of his life with gorgeously imperious Titania (cool and commanding Eliza Fichter), the fairy queen who is confident in her lust for an ass despite the horrified expressions of her minions. Dan Garcia’s King Oberon, clad in leather and chains, has the power to summon thunder, but he can’t control his queen. Their power struggle is laughable, and though they are gods, all too familiar to so many humans.
Eliza Fichter (center) with the cast
Mia Giatrelis, Eliza Fichter, Evan Taylor, Doug Lockwood, and Kody Grassett
Along with Helena and Demetrius, lovers Hermia (Thomika Marie Bridwell) and Lysander (Michael Broadhurst) are upstaged by the fairy world in this production. Their scenes verge on slapstick at times, all the better to illustrate Puck’s famous line, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
Evan Taylor, Rémani Lizana, Kody Grassett, Bobbie Steinbach, Doug Lockwood
Thomika Marie Bridwell and De’Lon Grant
And then there are the “rude mechanicals”—that hapless troupe of amateur actors led by earnest Peter Quince (Bobbie Steinbach). Their cringe-worthy production of Pyramus and Thisbe reflects the human longing to be seen, no matter how much we must debase ourselves to win those clicks and likes.
Mia Giatrelis and Alan Kuang
Kody Grassett and Eliza Fichter
At the end of this Dream, after the love potions wear off, after the couples properly sorted, and after the all the dancers have left the club, there is no doubt that the foolish dreams of longing and the memories of magic and glitter will certainly linger.
The cast
Eliza Fichter and Dan Garcia
photos by Nile Scott Studios
Kody Grassett, Doug Lockwood, and Bobbie Steinbach
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Actors’ Shakespeare Project
Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St. in Watertown
ends on May 4, 2025
for tickets ($20-$74), call 617.933.8600 or visit Actors Shakespeare Project
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
