Even if you’re not a Shakespeare fan, the comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is hard to knock. Samwell Rose, an MFA directing student, directed IU Theatre’s latest take on the play, and when I heard that it focused on queer liberation - and had a circus theme, too? - I decided I had to go.
The play is in the Wells-Metz theater, the campus’s main black box. There’s seating all around the action. As the audience was getting comfortable, performers walked around with juggling balls and other circus-y props. In the middle of the set, a tall pole was just asking to be danced around. And boy, was it, once the show got going. Platforms around the pole pulled apart, as the play unfolded, to reveal a boldly painted pattern on the floor. The set was simple but creative and colorful, and it reinforced the circus atmosphere.
Not everyone was part of the circus. The play’s young Athenian lovers – Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius – were dressed neatly in all gray. The costuming reinforced the approach to the lovers’ woes. They unfolded without much irony, even as the characters fell into histrionic arguments. Rose makes the struggles over power and love more literal by putting Demetrius and Helena into occasional kink and BDSM roles. At one point, Demetrius tries to physically submit to Helena. It’s exaggerated and is a memorable moment of queerness early on. Shakespeare has written the young lovers with big, youthful feelings of jealousy, hurt, surprise, and rage. This production magnified and even, at times, exaggerated those emotions through outsized gestures and loud, rapid speech.
But this is just one group of characters on this midsummer night. You can always count on the Rude Mechanicals for comedy, as they rehearse what promises to be a very mediocre production of Pyramus and Thisbe. Bottom - the most famously and flamboyantly mediocre of the Mechanicals - is a boor who somehow never fails to charm. He’s got a million ideas. Each one interrupts the last. His director, Peter Quince, and the other Mechanicals grit their teeth and put up with him, especially because in the end it’s clear how much he cares about each of them. Or maybe Rose played up that fondness in this particular production. Either way, senior Harley Babbit’s Bottom was well-played, as was the long-suffering Peter Quince, played by freshman Charley Ignatow.
The Mechanicals’ costumes involved colorful vests and tights. According to the program notes, they were influenced by 1930s Berlin, vaudeville circus and queer culture. Another post-Shakespeare add-on was music of queer icons like Chappel Roan and David Bowie. The Mechanicals sang an a cappella rendition of Pink Pony Club whenever they entered the stage. For all the ways the Mechanicals bug each other, the affection they shared for each other seemed to be another expression of queer joy: the importance of choosing your people.
But wait, you ask. Chosen kin. Chappel Roan and David Bowie. A touch of kink. Seems like Midsummer could be queerer than that!
Don’t worry. When the fairy king and queen appear, they’re not gendered as you might expect. King Oberon is played as a pants role by freshman Kayla Treviño, and Titania, played by nonbinary freshman AJ Thoma, comes across with the elegance and flair of a drag queen. Oberon and Titania are not the meatiest parts, but both freshmen knew how to occupy the stage. Thoma’s Titania moved like a ballet dancer, with a skill that seemed as likely informed by classical dance as it may have been by drag performance. And Treviño, as Oberon, rose to a challenge even the most seasoned Shakespearean actors sometimes fail to meet: she conveyed the meaning of every word she spoke.
Finally, there’s the famous sprite, Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow. Puck was played by freshman Andrew Beasley, who like Treviño, seemed very comfortable on stage. He knew how to draw our attention with his eyes and stance and gestures. At the end, he graced us with guitar skill and a confident, excellent voice. Jay Butcher as Helena joined for some lovely harmonies.
The physical comedy of so many characters came through in this production even when vocal enunciation didn’t always keep up. And even on opening night, the actors rarely stumbled over their words - a testament to commitment from the actors and a strong rehearsal process. The acting students, Rude Mechanicals and otherwise, put on their show with enthusiasm. Samwell Rose’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream celebrates the communal nature of queer performance, where performing with and for your peers is at least as much of a joy as performing for an audience.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through Friday, March 13th at the Well Metz Theater on the IU Bloomington campus.