Romantic comedy, authoritarian patriarch dictating nuptials, lavish entertainment for festive weddings, plotting revenge, mystic and mysterious falling in and out of love….the Bard presented all the elements of an Indian masala movie in his play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” enacted at the enchanting Wente Wineries at Livermore last Thursday night.
The annual Livermore Shakespeare Festival offered an open air venue with the verdant trees and a gentle wind blowing as the sun set into dusk, and moved through the night, the families with children settled down to enjoy the hilarious concoction of love triangles and more.
In this offering, Shakespeare presents a comedy meant to entertain the audience, and is woven around the event of impending nuptials between Theseus, the Duke of Athensto Hippolita, the Amazon queen, and the surrounding mayhem. The simple plot with its unexpected and unfortunate twists and turns continues to tickle the funny bone of today’s audience and remains a frequently produced work.
As is true in other Shakespearean plays, there is a great reliance on the wondrous natural theme, and the harmony with which nature proceeds and touches all living beings. The forest, therefore, serves as a fitting backdrop to the unfolding drama of the characters, and the resplendent green, serene, cold night of Wente Vineyards added real life magic to the setting.
The play depicts the developing rocky, out of sync discords of the main characters in the plot, which then get resolved to restore the natural balance of being. A good dose of reality confused with illusion is central to the comedic nature of the theme, and the audience is pulled along in the absurdity that results when one is mistaken for the other.
Along with the preparations for the wedding of the Duke and his bride, other couples stage their marital bliss, or lack thereof. King Oberon and Queen Titania of the fairies residing deep in the forest are embroiled in a custody dispute over an Indian slave. The wrath of the King leads him to use the power of a lust-inducing flower, delivered by his aide Puck, on Titaniaso she may fall in love with the first creature she lays eyes upon waking.
The antics of the lowly mechanicals, the cast of the play to be enacted for the royal wedding includes Nick Bottom, who attracts Puck’s attention, and is not spared his part in the match making. He becomes the object of Tatiana’s affections as a result of the magic, but not before he has acquired the head of a donkey.
Into the enchanting forest wander two other couples who are entangled in the bonds of real and perceived love. The first hapless couple, Hermia and Lysander, intent on eloping to escape the authoritarian control of the latter’s father, Egeus, who wants her to marry Demetrius, who happens to be the ex-fiance of Helena, who is Hermia’s best friend; and the other couple is Demetrius who is pursued by Helena into the forest.
Upon seeing Demetrius’s disdain for Helena, Oberon orders Puck to change that to feelings of love through the use of the potion. The mischievous Puck further continues the comedy of errors by mixing up the intended lovers, thus rendering an impossible situation with the most unfortunate couplings.
Puck, mistakenly applies the potion to Lysander’s eyelids who promptly becomes besotted with Helena, much to her chagrin. In the end, of course, the true lovers are reunited and the strangeness sorted out, however, it is relayed as a dream to the participants.
In a conversation, Helena, played by Lily Narbonne, elaborates on the use of iambic pentameter, akin to the sound of five heartbeats as a powerful form of poetry and how that helped her get into the character of the Athenian nobility and speak about the nature of love.
Mary Ann Rogers, playing the dual role of Titania and Hippolita remarked that the play is relevant today because of its mirth. Director David Armagnac skillfully draws upon the strength of each character to present a play with timeless allure where true love shines through the muddling delivered with sparkling dialogues and superb acting.
Archana Asthana
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