Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a wonderfully whimsical and deftly hilarious romantic comedy, which is currently being staged by Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Theatre Department. It opened Thursday, April 13, in Robinson Theatre.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream” tells three concurrent tales, each one tied to various groups of people. There are four lovers (played by Isa Sanchez, Donovan Kriskowski, Brendan Lowry, and Avery Rima) who become entangled with the Fairy King, Oberon (played by CW Hellen) and his scheme to rid his land of a halfling child. There is also a group of trades workers, who are working on staging a play for the upcoming nuptials of the King of Athens, (Bri Angle, Ian Rowzee, Keenan Clements, Kobey LaDuke, Joseph Tevault and Marge Brophy).
The five-act show tells of how the three groups of people become intertwined with one another through various attempts by Oberon to meddle in the affairs of love. The wrong human ends up loving someone he ought not to, and the Fairy Queen, Titania (McKenna Hiler) falls for a magically mutated Nick Bottom (Ian Rozee).
Kriskowski and Sanchez (as Lysander and Hermia respectively) felt like the romantic-comedy pairs that audiences just adore. Kriskowski’s face and movements were so gentle that it was hard not to root for their characters to escape from Athens so that they could be together.
Rima’s Helena came on strong, as she really leaned into the despair in love, but scorned another option to Lowry’s Demetrius. But while her character constantly bemoaned the fact that her love interest was not available, she brought out a comedic element in Helena that made her interactions with Sanchez feel like it was nearing the bitter end of a jealous friendship.
The staging of the show leaned very heavily into the Greek pastoral, opting to use a mix of classical-sounding Greek music, while modernizing some of the sound effects to emphasize some of the more comedic moments. The result was a well-rounded musical accompaniment that didn’t quite fit into an ancient Greek world, but one that worked well with the semi-historical setting and costuming within the world of the show.
Though the show itself is a comedy, there is no more comedic moment than the fifth act, in which Angle leads the Mechanicals (the trade workers) through a play within a play. Together, the group pull off a hilarious, if significantly shortened, version of Pyramus and Thisbe, the love story that Romeo and Juliet adapted. Rowzee in particular was able to deftly pull off the physical comedy, drawing out moments to hilarious effect.
And during the whole thing, Austin Jensen’s Theseus was interesting to watch, as he could not look away from the show, and yet was opting to cower behind either a pillow, or his new wife, Hippolyta of Amazon (played by L Knight). Between his reactions to the show within the play, and Rowzee, the ending of the play could not have been better.
The raised and angled stage was a brilliant move by Director Ben Reigel to foreground the action, and create some separation from the beautifully simple background of dropped curtains, which stood in for the trunks of trees. By making his actors work on the raised stage, it allowed for a better audience view, and gave viewers better access to the action in front of them. Everyone on cast was able to move freely around the stage, utilizing its differing height to emphasize shifts in dynamics and power throughout each scene. And, by lighting the entirety of the stage in softer, more natural hues, it gave an air of rustic ruralness to the show, which fit so well with the Greek visuals and themes.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream” was a bright and wonderful show about love and jealousy, and it serves the audience up with a delightful comedy about how quickly things can go wrong when we meddle in the affairs of others.
The CMU Theatre Department has four more showings of Midsummer, from Thursday April 20 through Saturday April 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Robinson. There is also a matinee showing on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
