What Fun These Mortals Be

Twenty years ago Allyn Burrows was swinging on vines through the forest and onto the stage of Shakespeare and Company’s woodland theater in Lenox, Mass., wearing black leather pants as the sometimes malevolent but always enchanting overlord of the fae, Oberon. This summer Moore, artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, is directing his own production of William Shakespeare’s magical romantic comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” outdoors at the company’s New Spruce Theatre. Whether on stage or behind the scenes, Burrows’ talent has always been interpreting The Bard for a broad audience, heightening the emotions, and delivering Elizabethan language to the audience in a clear, accessible way. Unafraid to let his actors puncture their iambic pentameter with the occasional “What?” or “Oh my god!” or even lines translated into running Spanish agitation in moments of passionate dispute, these modern touches surprisingly don’t disrupt, they invigorate. The casual inflections remind us of the timeless predicaments of love that Shakespeare penned for the boisterous theaters of London. It’s worth noting that “Midsummer” has always gone through reinvention, never becoming a true hit until a Victorian adaptation in Covent Garden, long after the playwright’s death.

Special mention must go out to the four Athenian lovers — Blake Hamilton Currie, Sara Linares, Carlos Olmedo, and Naire Poole— who take full advantage of the New Spruce Theater’s outdoor amphitheater, with Greek set decoration by Jim Youngerman. They throw their bodies into big swings of physical comedy, tumbling into the brush, lamenting directly to the audience, and bringing an electric, youthful interpretation of men and women caught in disputes of monogamy, dalliances, and one-sided adoration.

Costumed loosely around the release of 5th Dimension’s “Age of Aquarius,” designer Stella Giulietta Schwartz’s kitschy 1960s/70s/80s inspiration makes colorful, clever allusions to the gods of children’s pop culture. Fairy Queen Titania’s (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) blonde tumbling curls and plastic fairy underlings evoke She-Ra while Oberon (Nigel Gore) takes inspiration from David Bowie circa Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth." Theseus of Athens (Javier David) dawns the lightning-bolt insignia and cape of DC’s comic book hero Shazam, and Amazonian Hippolyta (Madeleine Rose Maggio) is dressed in Wonder Woman’s classic costume. Sheila Bandyopadhyay’s dark turn as Puck is heightened by a metallic lamé look straight out of "The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling."

The main attraction is undoubtedly Jacob Ming-Trent as Bottom. Ming-Trent previously starred in 2021 as Falstaff where he earned rave reviews for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of “Merry Wives” and starred in HBO’s Emmy-winning series “Watchmen.” Grooving, riffing, singing and seemingly ad-libbing, like Burrow’s Oberon two decades ago, this will be the memory of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for children in the audience taking in the play for the time. Undeniably confident and charismatic, this is Bottom on top.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" runs at Shakespeare & Company through September 10.

Naire Poole as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Shakespeare & Company. Photo by Nile Scott Studios/Shakespeare & Company

Elizabeth Aspenlieder as Titania and Jacob Ming-Trent as Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  Photo by Nile Scott Studios/Shakespeare & Company

Sheila Bandyopadhyay as Puck and Gina Fonseca as a fairy. Photo by Nile Scott Studios/Shakespeare & Company

Naire Poole as Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Shakespeare & Company. Photo by Nile Scott Studios/Shakespeare & Company