A Play With Singing (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is both a high-spirited romp about worlds colliding in a magical fairy forest and a cautionary examination of the dark side of relationships. Local all-stars Sheri Lee Miller and James Pelican have taken an exciting swing with their directorial concept by setting the play in 1960’s West Sonoma County and building in live renditions of soul, pop and rock songs from the era. Backed by a terrific onstage band tucked into a lush Occidental-esque stage forest of towering Douglas firs (created by baller set designers Eddy Hansen and Elizabeth Bazzano) a seriously impressive cast of Shakespeareans sing wisely curated golden oldies that surprise the audience in all the perfect places. It’s a musical now! Well. Miller and Pelican’s production is short on choreography, so perhaps it is A Play With Singing.
Which was totally Shakespeare’s thing anyway.
I wonder about the best scene of the show, however, where Demetrius (John Browning – I will see anything that guy is in) and Lysander (Noah Vondralee-Sternhill) duet “Happy Together” by The Turtles while they slap-fight. It was movement with intention, it was funny, it drove the story forward, and I think the show could’ve used more of that. Yes – Helena and Hermia Want Somebody To Love, and it’s very fun to see Taylor Diffenderfer (who feasted on Helena and left no crumbs) and Austin Aquino-Harrison channel Grace Slick. Clever. Ditto to having pissed-off Titania (a flawless Serena Elize Flores) and her fairies (led by scene-stealing Riz Gross) sing at Oberon (Matt Cadigan) to Hit the Road Jack. But the action of the play gets halted by this. A lot. Going on a journey through the forest of Athens with Spreckels Theater Company is a lot like hiking West County with kids. You know the trail. It's a timeless trail structured around patterns of madcap confusion and exhilarating surprise. But you have to stop and wait for your kids every two minutes. They need a snack. They have to pee. There’s a big stick. Suddenly they’re standing on a tree stump singing Donovan. Verily, the hike lacks momentum.
That being said, I definitely think you should go – especially if you are a lover of classic tunes! It’s possible that your friendly North Bay theater nerd is too reverent about theatrical pacing, because it should be noted that Rohnert Park was living for this concept. Big-ups to musical director Jared Emerson-Johnson. Folks were dancing in their seats! I kept thinking that we would all get up and twirl in the aisles like Sebastopol ex-Deadheads at a Peacetown concert. That would have been pretty magical, too. Maybe even exactly what Miller and Pelican were going for.
