In the summer of 2017, the Public Theater, director Lear deBessonet, and a cast of 25 produced a spectacular version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Central Park. Clint Ramos decked out De’Adre Aziza in a gilded Beyoncé Grammy Awards tribute costume, spiky crown and all. David Rockwell re-created an enchanted forest on stage. It was, apropos of Shakespeare’s subject matter, magical.
Then last night, inside the Public’s Shiva Theater, I found myself equally entranced by Midsummer with a sneaker-wearing cast of nine, handheld bubble machines, and a seemingly unlimited supply of rainbow confetti. It was, yes, magical.
If you like your Bard with a dance break—and don’t mind getting bopped in the head with the occasional wayward balloon—this is the show for you. The boom box, milk crates, and too-darn-catchy songs (e.g., the mid-’90s jam “This Is How We Do It”) are your first clues that this is more A Midsummer Night’s Block Party. The lights are bright and the vibe is super-chill; you’ll notice actors chatting and snapping selfies with audience members before the show. This is how the Mobile Unit does it. (Accessibility is the name of the game. Before this stint at the Shiva, the Mobile Unit toured the five boroughs, giving free performances of Midsummer at libraries, rec centers, and similar venues.)
Brava to director Jenny Koons for condensing all of the play’s romantic and comic high jinks—lovers Hermia (Carolyn Kettig) and Lysander (Jasai Chase-Owens) running off to the forest, Demetrius (Leland Fowler) chasing his beloved Hermia, Helena (a terrific Rosanny Zayas) chasing her beloved Demetrius, mischievous Puck (Natalie Woolams-Torres) making Lysander fall for Helena, Bottom (Christopher Ryan Grant) turning into a donkey, fairy queen Titania (Marinda Anderson) falling in love with said donkey, Athenian king Theseus (Merritt Janson) and Amazonian queen Hippolyta (Anderson) tying the knot—into a tidy 90 minutes, and for staging possibly the best-slash-worst Pyramus and Thisbe ever. “This green plot shall be our stahhhhggggge,” says David Ryan Smith, overenunciating and overacting commendably as one of the play-within-a-players, Quince. Also, whoever thought of that hole-in-the-wall gag deserves a standing ovation. As does Zayas for keeping a straight face while playing the Wall.
Hahnji Jang’s costumes may be minimal, but they’re still clever and thoughtful: Anderson’s Hippolyta wears an “I am woman hear me roar” T-shirt under a chic white blazer; when she’s Titania, she tops her T-shirt with a colorful sleeveless patchwork trench, chunky gold Wonder Woman–esque cuffs, a floaty gold mesh train, and a blindingly sparkly necklace. As Theseus, Janson wears a similarly styled chic blazer, but in red; when Janson enters as Oberon, she’s in a bow-down-to-me fabulous white fur coat and sunglasses.
Just it began, this Midsummer ends with a dance party (the audience is, of course, welcome to join in): to the tune of, appropriately enough, Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic.” To quote Bruno, they set this party off right.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream opened November 2, 2018, and runs through November 17 at the Public Theater. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
