A Midsummer Night's Dream

Let me start off by saying that I thought the Chicago Shakespeare Theater did an amazing job with A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have seen other productions done at the same theatre (most recently, Macbeth and A Comedy of Errors), and this was the first production that I was able to fully understand. When we saw Macbeth as a class last year, I spent half of the show staring intently at the actors to try to figure out what was going on, and the other half gazing aimlessly at the scenery and at my classmates. I walked out of  that theatre knowing no more of Macbeth's plotline than I had known walking in.

When we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, I assumed that the experience would unfold in the same way, and that I would end up feeling just as flustered as I had the year before. I had no idea what the plot was about. I heard someone on the bus mention something about fairies, but that was about all I knew. But once the production started, instead of worrying about the language or the confusing plot, I found myself enjoying the story and laughing at 400-year-old jokes. One thing I enjoyed about this show was that it was so different from most of the Shakespearean plays I had read and viewed in the past. Most of the stories that I had had experiences with before ended tragically, with half of the characters either dead or gone completely mad. Several of his plays are pretty heavy, and aren't extremely enjoyable. This story, however, was light and humorous. I laughed at all of the chaos caused by that scheming little fairy, Puck. (Also, I just have to mention that I spent a good amount of time during the first act trying to figure out if Puck was a lady fairy or a man fairy. I honestly wasn't sure until I looked in the playbill and found out that the actor's name was "Elizabeth." It really didn't take away from the story, and she was a great actress, but it did distract me...just a little bit.)

I loved how the last few lines between that man and that woman subtly tied together the whole show. I'm not sure if it's how the story is supposed to end, but the fact that they were the fairies was pretty brilliant, in my opinion. The story could've ended without that being mentioned and it all still would have made perfect sense, but I thought it added another layer into the story, changing the way you thought about the whole story using just a couple of lines.

Altogether, I truly enjoyed the Chicago Shakespeare Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The set was subtle but certainly enough for the show, the actors were all great, the costumes were beautiful (I loved Titania's hair), and the story provided a perfect mix of laughs and not-too-sappy romance. I loved seeing one of Shakespeare's plays that contrasted so greatly with what I had seen in the past.