Not only in Dream, but in other Shakespeare plays - comedies and bits of comic relief in the tragedies - certain scenes go on so long it seems that Will wanted to give actors the opportunity to milk them for all they're worth. Why not? The audience paid to be entertained; there wasn't much else, not like today when you can whip out your Ipad and watch a movie at the beach while you're waiting for the fireworks to begin. Nevertheless, with all the other choices, Bard sells out practically every performance during its annual summer run, and Dream is still one of the most popular of the four shows offered.
This year, director Dean Paul Gibson remounted a production of Dream that he first conceived in 2006. According to his show notes, the idea was to wrap this "fusion of fantasy in a collision of style and humour, augmented with desire and the need for harmony." The collision of style came through the music and dance for the most part. Etta James' great rendition of "At Last" when Titania awakes and, under the spell that the Fairy King, Oberon, has ordered cast, she falls in love with Bottom, as a donkey. Of course "Why do fools fall in love?" ends that scene, and there are other musical jokes, such as Lawrence Welk's old "bubble music" theme song, when the beautifully garbed true couples, all brought back to their senses by another spell, approach the stage to sit through a seemingly endless performance by the workmen, including Bottom, who put on the play within the play. Credit for the clever music choices goes to sound designers Alessandro Juliani and Meg Roe.
Fabulous hair styles and imaginative costumes, and Puck, played by Kyle Rideout, in a platinum Mohawk, white tights, silver high-tops, and a multicoloured tu-tu he uses to accent his bawdy, athletic, bi-sexual wringing of every possible bit of humour out of his many scenes. He's a fairy, yes, and a genuine spirit of another sort as he struts, leaps, twerks, grinds, wiggles. The audience found him hilarious and of course he got the loudest cheers, what would have been Bravos in Europe, at the end.
Were the actors exaggerating the humour to please the audience at the expense of the Bard's meter and brilliant lines, asked a young friend, a student of theatre? For some of us, yes. I ended up liking Ian Butcher as Oberon because he managed to retain a certain dignity while creating the spells that worked such theatrical chaos: "I with the morning's love have oft made sport...even til the eastern gate, all fiery red opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, turns into yellow gold his salt green streams...". And admiring Claire Hesselgrave as Helena, for the credibility of the lines she spoke in despair, outrage and love. Despite her wild hair and sexy costume, she maintained the sort of clarity necessary to convey words and phrases that have become part of of our common vocabulary.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind."