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Pointe Players’ ‘Midsummer’ performance exceeds expectations

TA Keating ‘13| Executive Web Editor

After months of rehearsals, the Pointe Players production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” finally hit the stage last weekend. The cast and crew did justice to the famous Shakespearean comedy, delivering a performance full of drama, humor and heart.

For those who avoided reading it in middle school, “Midsummer” follows several interconnecting stories relating to the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens (David Gilbert ’15). The most prominent storyline is that of Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena (Finn McComas ’13, Emma Hintzen ’13, Drew Meeker ’13 and Nicole Bade ’14, respectively). Hermia is in love with Lysander, despite her father’s orders to marry Demetrius. So Hermia and Lysander sneak out of Athens to elope, confiding only in Helena, a childhood friend of Hermia. Since Helena is madly in love with Demetrius, she tells him of Hermia’s escape, hoping to win his favor. Plenty of other stuff happens after that, but all you need to know is that all four of them end up lost in the forest, which happens to be shared by the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania (John Leo ’15 and Maggie Bickerstaff ’13), who are having a nasty dispute. At the same time, a troupe of laborers/actors go out into the forest to practice for their performance of “Pyramus and Thisbe” at Thesius’ wedding. In the middle of all these stories is Puck, Oberon’s mischievous servant (Jack Daley ’14), whose hijinks move the plot forward.

As anyone can see, the plot gets pretty complicated. That, in addition to Shakespeare’s Middle English vocabulary and long monologues, makes “Midsummer” a very ambitious performance, especially for a group of high schoolers. Luckily, the Pointe Players were up to the task. In parts where lines were difficult to understand, the actors made excellent use of body language and emotion to get their message to the audience.

Although many of Shakespeare’s plays are comedies, they never seemed very funny to me (iambic pentameter is a form of comedic timing in only the most literal sense). However, the Pointe Players seemed to understand that “Midsummer” is a comedy, and treated it as such. Sight gags were common and well received by the audience, and there were plenty of tongue-in-cheek nods to the immortal bard’s word choice (the words “bosom” and “ass” weren’t always anatomical). Jack Daley in particular was hilarious as Puck, the mischievous servant of Oberon, frenetically sneaking around the stage during and making comments about them to the audience (yes, he was supposed to be doing that).

Photo by Emily Mlynarek ’14| Staff Writer

Another aspect of the comedy of the show was its choreography. Since the forest fairies have at least one obligatory-frolicking-in-the-meadows scene, the actors decided to have fun with it. This meant a disco dance break and at least one instance of the fairies doing the “Gangnam Style” dance. While the dance breaks were a bit unnecessary and long, they were well-enjoyed by the audience, bringing countless laughs and applause.

Since I just mentioned Puck’s antics on stage, it’s probably a good time to discuss the set and scenery itself, which was pretty impressive. When the forest scenery on stage was first revealed, there were audible gasps from the audience. A combination of excellent lighting and lush green plants everywhere made for the best set I’ve ever seen from a school production. The costumes were equally well done, and obviously had a fair amount of work put into them.

Overall, the Pointe Players production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was a success. In fact, taking the audience reaction into account, I’d say it was a smash hit. The combined elements of acting, humor and aesthetics created a fantastic performance that will be difficult to surpass next year.

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