Preview
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Shakespeare in the Park
Runs July 5 to 13
Mount Royal College
Runs July 25 to August 19
Prince’s Island Park
Theatregoers aren’t likely to pack a picnic supper for The Bard in the Bog, and a Wet William isn’t likely to attract fresh audiences. But when its long-time venue sinks beneath the Bow River, what is a waterlogged summer tradition like Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park to do?
With the tree trunks of Prince’s Island submerged due to the recent flooding, the forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been forced to take up temporary residence at Mount Royal College’s TransCanada Amphitheatre against the backdrop of a securely enclosed pond. But, while the venue may not be familiar, this Dream’s Puck, Kelly Wong, hopes the production’s audiences will be.
"We may not get the people who are rollerblading through the park and walking their dogs, who stop by halfway through the show, but there are a lot of people who come to Shakespeare in the Park to come out to Shakespeare in the Park," says the Sheridan College theatre student and recent MRC alumnus. "I think we will get our loyal supporters."
"And we get bathrooms, too," adds the production’s Bottom, four-year Shakespeare in the Park veteran Frank Zotter, with a laugh.
Plans are to move the show back to Prince’s Island in late July, once the park has dried out, where it will run on alternate evenings with the staging of another Shakespeare comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
While torrential rains and a temporary relocation may fall short of ideal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a summer spectacle that refuses to be contained. Whether it’s the tiers in MRC’s amphitheatre or the gentle incline of Prince’s Island Park, the outdoors is still the best venue for the fairy comedy.
"All the characters are so fantastical," says Wong. "Even the lovers, though they’re humans, when they’re affected by this spell it’s like they become extraordinary or amplified."
This version of the play is also undergoing another kind of amplification. Under director Martin Fishman, the tale has been relocated to the world of ’80s rock, complete with Puck as a Billy Idol lookalike and Bottom’s troupe of amateur actors as a Beastie Boys-style posse. Giving Shakespeare a pop-culture spin may offend the purists, but it’s a decision that Wong defends.
"(With) other directors, when they make Shakespeare contemporary, it’s almost an excuse for the costume design," he says. "I don’t think that’s the case with this one.
"When you read Shakespeare’s text, the poetry he has for Puck, you don’t think of it the way Marty has brought it out, but the words accommodate it," he adds. "It’s been nice to find Puck’s darker side, his evil, hobgoblin side, as opposed to the playful, mischievous fairy. He stirs shit up."
Zotter, a seasoned actor who has also performed in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in London, Ontario and Montreal, agrees.
"This play accommodates the director’s imagination, and if the director has a big one, then all the better," he says. "What I’ve seen, particularly with this play, is huge detail and colour. (Fishman) has filled in so much with his imagination that it’s really stunning. It’s a very contemporary Dream, but it’s also really accessible."
Asked whether the production’s ’80s motif conjures up painfully familiar memories for him, Zotter says, "I’m equal parts nostalgia and embarrassment."
But when it comes to leaving actors red-faced, the days of synth rock and feathered hair have nothing on some of the incidents Zotter has experienced while performing Shakespeare in the open air. As the enchanted players in A Midsummer Night’s Dream can attest, there’s nothing like the outdoors to bring out the bizarre and hilarious. There was the time a dog leaped onstage and hijacked a Shakespeare in the Park production, or the time a passing Gay Pride parade float catcalled the trial scene of The Merchant of Venice at Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach.
Then there was the time on Prince’s Island when a pair of mating squirrels upstaged the show. "Oh, that was crazy," recalls Zotter. "They were beside the stage where the tree is and they were doing this courtship, taking off and running after each other. And it was during a really serious scene. The actors didn’t know what was happening, they just heard (the audience say), ‘Ewww, whaa?’ And before you know it, you hear, ‘Oooh, aaah!’ And they were fucking."
Shakespeare in the Park’s Mount Royal College shows will offer free parking, concessions and gourmet picnic baskets from River Café. For more information, go to www.mtroyal.ca or call 440-6374. The Picnic Basket Hotline is 440-6206. |
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