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'Midsummer Night's Dream' By Roberta Kent Special to the Tidings There is only one word to describe OSF's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Elizabethan Theatre: magical. Director Kenneth Albers really has rethought "Dream" and come up with a new take on this old familiar favorite in the Shakespearean canon. Albers has taken the obvious - "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is, in fact, very much the stuff of dreams. He has simply woven new stagecraft and characterizations around it. And he plays it for laughs - broad laughs. He has encouraged his actors to mug, primp and declaim. Often, they romp around the stage like a troupe of acrobats. The action takes place in two distinct worlds. In Athens, Duke Theseus prepares to wed a reluctant Hippolyta. The noble Hermia refuses to wed her father's choice, Demetrius and elopes to a nearby forest with Lysander. Her friend Helena, in love with Demetrius, warns him and then follows him to the forest. Meanwhile, the forest's fairy world is equally in turmoil. The fairy king Oberon has quarreled with his queen, Titania. He conspires with his servant Puck to get even. Puck takes the task and embellishes on it, creating some mistaken enchantment for the young lovers and to a group of craftsmen - "mechanicals" - who have come to the forest to rehearse a play to present at the royal wedding. Albers sees Shakespeare's world of real-life Athens and the fairy kingdom of the nearby forest as parallel universes, existing at the same time in the same place. He emphasizes this parallel universe theme by doubling up the actors who play Duke Theseus in Athens and the fairy king Oberon (James Newcomb) and Queen Hippolyta and the fairy queen Titania (Catherine Lynn Davis). Likewise Puck and the Athenian master of the revels Philostrate are both played by Sandy McCallum and his assistants by the same troupe of actors. Here Puck is no young sprite, no obedient if not-quite-perfect minion. Albers has cast his Puck as old and cantankerous and rather sloppy. Albers has given him a crew of what he has called "Pucksters," Pucks-in-training, working their way up the ladder. Even Titania's fairies seem to exist in both worlds. Or, at least, that is what Bottom perceives in his enchanted dream. It is the lovers, Helena and Demetrius (Kim Rhodes and Shad Willingham) and Hermia and Lysander (Julie Oda and Christopher DuVal) who exist in both universes as simply themselves, without alter egos. Albers has cast as the "mechanicals" William Langan as the transformed Bottom, James Edmondson as the prissy Quince, Catherine Coulson as Snug the Joiner, Suzanne Irving as a fearful Starveling the Tailor, Gerson Dacanay as Snout the Tinker and U. Jonathan Toppo as Flute the Bellows-Mender. He has allowed them every shtick in the book - broad double takes, elaborate stage business, heavy-handed melodrama - and rather than being the sort of afterthought that the play within a play can often be, this "Pyramus and Thisbe" nearly walks off with the entire show. That is, of course, if they can wrest it away from McCallum's slightly woozy Puck and Langan's mesmerizing Bottom. Langan truly becomes the focus of the play in this production. He is Everyman, earthbound yet poetical. This is also a production where the lighting design by Robert Peterson is as integral as any of the actors. Using Michael Ganio's overarching set, intertwined with vines, Peterson's twinkling lights convey location, mood and even specific characters. The costumes by Susan E. Mickey set the action somewhere in the mid-19th century. The distinct "worlds" are defined by color. Athens is in shades of black, white and gray. The mechanicals, as befits their station, are in earth tones. In contrast the fairy world is aglitter in vivid jewel tones of red, green and orange, sparkling and shimmering like - well, like fairies. Todd Barton composed the original music for the production, basing it on the three distinct octaves of the bassoon. The result is lush, romantic and wildly funny. If you think you've seen enough productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," think again. This is one not to miss. LINKS: REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. DAILY TIDINGS: Main | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -