A Midsummer Night's Dream - The Reviews

DON'T MISS THESE FAIRIES

`MIDSUMMER NIGHT' MAKES DELIGHTFUL FREE DEBUT IN UPTOWN PARK

by JULIE YORK COPPENS, Staff Writer

OK, it was freezing.

But a few years from now, when Shakespeare on The Green rivals Summer Pops at SouthPark as Charlotte's most-anticipated outdoor arts freebie, the 50-odd souls who huddled through Thursday night's premiere will be able to say: "We were there."

Director/producer Elise Wilkinson and her new company, Collaborative Arts, have pulled off the kind of earth-shaking cultural debut that hits a city maybe once in a decade. Their in-the-round, alfresco "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - with young lovers tussling on the grass and fairies flitting amidst the ornamental trees and giant fish - works so well, it's amazing no one's tried it before.

Well, maybe not amazing. The financial and physical challenges of staging Shakespeare in this verdant wind-tunnel tucked between two uptown streets are at least as daunting as the legal and emotional obstacles facing the "Midsummer" heroes.

But that's what fairies are for. And high-tech sound systems. Sponsor Wachovia should be joined by other supernatural forces to give "Dream" a sequel.

The story: An Athenian duke (Matt Cosper) awaits his marriage to the hostile Hippolyta (Leah Webb). Two younger couples (Beth Yost and Jim Yost, Kristin Jones and Jonavan Adams), meanwhile, have it out in the woods after one of the guys, and then the other, temporarily falls for the wrong girl. The fairy king and queen (Cosper and Webb again), and mischievous Puck (Joanna Long), get caught in the lovers' tangle - but all comes right by the time Bottom (Joe Copley) and his troupe of really bad, blue-collar thespians, perform their play at the duke's wedding feast.

Wilkinson and company make these convolutions easy to follow. Scenes play all around us, but we can see most of the action (much of it silly) and can hear every word.

The show suffers from a few bad casting calls - Copley is a fine actor, but wrong for Bottom - and an inadequate costume budget. But Collaborative Arts is right to trust the text, and this extraordinary setting, to conjure its cold "Midsummer" magic.

The Charlotte Observer, May 13, 2006

Kicky Bard on The Green

Outdoor production is a Dream come true

by PERRY TANNENBAUM

It's been nearly 18 years since anybody staged a Shakespeare play outdoors in the Center City. That legendary Charlotte Shakespeare Company production still resonates down the corridors of history. Humble fried chicken baskets on sale to theater lovers who attended the free presentation. Ambient sounds of city buses and the nearby parking garage echoing through medieval Verona and Mantua. Most of all, I recall the thick accent of the Russian actress portraying the nubile Capuletovsky in Romeo and Juliet.

Time marches on. So does technology in the marvelous new Collaborative Arts production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thanks to an American-born cast -- and an expertly deployed wireless sound system -- we hear nearly every word with admirable clarity. Quite a feat when you consider that helicopters and small aircraft flew overhead during Thursday night's opening, harmonized with a couple of Harleys growling down South Tryon.

The proficiency of Total Event Production's electronics allows director Elise Wilkinson to broaden her stage to arena-sized proportions. Like Cirque du Soleil's Delirium at Bobcats Arena last month, there's a runway bisecting the area where the audience sits on the Green. Unlike the Cirque spectacle, live action isn't confined to that chained-off runway.

No, you won't want to get too settled into your blanket or beach chair as we follow Shakespeare's frisky Athenians into the enchanted woods. While a large chunk of the comedy does unfold at our feet, there are scenes at either end of the runway -- including the discordant opening and the mechanicals' rehearsal. After Oberon and Puck work their magic on the fugitive young lovers, Bottom and the Fairy Queen, action sprouts up behind us and beyond the other half of the audience facing us.

The sound stays so satisfyingly loud and clear that you'll sometimes need to visually sweep the Green to find where it's coming from. To keep the action comical at long distances, Wilkinson has this new generation of Shakespeareans playing big -- and at high energy in the most frenetic scenes.

As the mercurial Demetrius, Jonavan Adams inadvertently kicked off one of his shoes during one of his scuffles. Attempting to intimidate her rival Helena as jealousies come to a boil, Beth Yost hisses through an elaborate martial arts routine, kicking and thrusting and chopping as Hermia.

After portraying Theseus and Hippolyta by day, Matt Cosper and Leah Webb effectively moonlight as the quarreling fairy royals, Oberon and Titania. No less pleasing is the elfin flavor Joanna Long sprinkles onto Puck. Among the mechanicals, Joe Copley doesn't deliver Bottom's beastliness with the omnivorous gusto I'd prefer, but I was quite taken with Karen Lamb's officiousness as Peter Quince.

On a less than regal budget, costume designer Laura Pyle modernizes the Athenians without sacrificing the heathen charm of the woodlanders. Much the same can be said for Wilkinson's resourceful use of the Green as an environmental setting. Yes, it's refreshing to take in an evening vista that looks down past the Convention Center to the Hilton beyond and the full moon above.

But the near-absence of stage scenery nearly transports us back across the centuries to when Shakespeare penned his winsome couplets. Place yourself among the picnicking, cocktailing, lounging, wandering-by crowd at the Green, and you'll likely discover some of the Bard's original jollity.

A scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Clockwise left to right: Corlis Hayes (Mustardseed), Leah Webb (Titania), Joe Copley (Bottom), Tracy Heberlig (Peaseblossom)

Creative Loafing, May 17, 2006

(Read the entire article)

For more info:
Call 704-625-1288
Email hi@collaborativeartstheatre.com