Merry mayhem in Actors' Shakespeare Project's ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Boston Globe

14-04-2025

A gifted actor himself, Parent gives his cast a lot of running room — literally. He amps up the physicality in a no-holds-barred, propulsively on-the-move production that's rife with visual, verbal, or musical allusions to pop culture.
Blue Man Group. 'The Lion King.' Marvin Gaye. 'RuPaul's Drag Race.' NSYNC. Brando howling 'Stella!!!' in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Interpretive dance and its pretensions. 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' And, in one of the production's high points, some truly sensational break dancing by Alan Kuang as Puck, the mischief-sowing sprite.
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Perhaps inevitably, perhaps not, the verse takes a backseat to the knockabout antics in Parent's modern-dress production, which unfolds in a stark, industrial milieu (scenic design is by Ben Lieberson) that is dominated by large metal scaffolding upstage and on both sides of the stage.
A mirrored ball gleams high above, and performers are adorned with feathers and glitter and leather and masks (costumes are by Seth Bodie). The overall vibe Parent seeks to evoke is that of the New York club scene of the 1990s.
(Somewhat similar thematic territory was memorably staked out by the American Repertory Theater's long-running 'The Donkey Show,' a mostly wordless, disco-driven riff on 'Dream' that was set in a 1970s club and directed by husband-and-wife collaborators Randy Weiner and Diane Paulus.)
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'Dream' revolves around a quintessentially Shakespearean series of romantic muddles. There are erotic overtones, but on balance this is a PG-13 'Dream' that could serve as an introduction to Shakespeare for your young offspring.
Demetrius (De'Lon Grant) and Lysander (Michael Broadhurst) are both in love with Hermia (Thomika Marie Bridwell). But Hermia loves only Lysander. Her friend Helena (Deb Martin, a comic force) loves Demetrius — a passion that is most definitely not reciprocated.
Hermia's autocratic father, Egeus (the always welcome Bobbie Steinbach) orders Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she is prepared to defy him. When the four young Athenians end up in the woods, natural begins to yield to supernatural.
Puck puts flower juice on the eyes of both Lysander and Demetrius, causing both men to fall head over heels in love with Helena, confusing and infuriating her. Meanwhile, the fairy king, Oberon (Dan Garcia), is locked in a running battle with his wife and queen, Titania (Eliza Fichter). Aiming to get the upper hand by humiliating her, he puts magical flower juice on her eyes as she sleeps, designed to make her fall madly in love with the first person — or creature — she sees.
That turns out to be Nick Bottom, a weaver whose head has been transformed by Puck into that of a donkey. The role of Bottom is a juicy one, not just accommodating hammy excess but demanding it. Doug Lockwood doesn't miss his chance; he takes a big swing, and his Bottom is every bit as funny as he needs to be for 'Dream' to fully work.
Bottom and his friends, a group of manual laborers whom Puck calls 'the rude mechanicals,' are preparing to stage the love story and tragedy 'Pyramus and Thisbe,' at the wedding of the duke of Athens, Theseus (Kody Grassett) to Hippolyta (Fichter again).
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At that performance of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' by Bottom and his friends for the assembled aristocrats, Lockwood captures the vanity of an egotistical, scene-stealing theater hog. He is abetted in grand style by his colleagues: Rémani Lizana as Snug, the joiner; Evan Taylor as Flute, the bellows-mender; Grassett as Starveling, the tailor (Grassett also plays the wall); and Steinbach as Quince, the carpenter.
In the past couple of years. Actors' Shakespeare Project has enjoyed success with first-rate productions of plays by authors other than its namesake, including
All well and (very) good. But 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' reminds us that the company is still pretty good at the work of that Shakespeare fellow.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Play by William Shakespeare
Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Presented by Actors' Shakespeare Project. At Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown.
Through May 4. Tickets $20-74. At 617-241-2200 or
Don Aucoin can be reached at