Ashland (part two)

A Midsummer's Night Dream

The best single word description for the current production of A Midsummer's Night Dream at Ashland is SEXY. Other equally appropriate words are: fast-paced, raucous, colorful, and very very funny. Although the production pushes the envelope quite a bit, it never falls off the table, so to speak. To the contrary, I would have to call this particular production the best I've ever seen of this frequently performed play. Primary credit goes to Director Mark Rucker, but scenic designer Walt Spangler and costume designer Katherine also deserve mention.

From the very first moment, it is obvious that this production is going for broke. Theseus (the ever-amazing Michael Elich) and Hippolyta (the reliable Shona Tucker) are ensconced on a pair of gigantic white art-deco chairs like an extremely well-heeled power couple from the Sopranos, only smarter and hipper. The young lovers -- Hermia, Demetrius, Helena and Lysander -- are so achingly pubescent their budding sexuality can barely be contained. Visually, this is manifested by the ever-diminishing amount of clothing they wear as the play progresses.

The screamingly hilarious mechanicals literally drive onto the stage in an early 1970's VW luv van and then pour out to begin the rehearsal of their play. None of these characters is presented in a traditional manner, but each of their wonderful characterizations is pitch perfect. Bottom (Ray Porter) is an aging hippy, complete with a long David Crosby mane and hearty enthusiasm to match. Francis Flute is perfectly portrayed by the diminutive Eileen DeSandre. When Quince tells Flute "he" is to play Thisbe, DeSandre brings down the house with the line: "Nay, faith, let not me play a woman. I have a beard coming." I particularly enjoyed Jonathan Toppo's Peter Quince, for once presented not as a bumbling country yokel, but instead as a provincial wanna-be stage director straight out of Waiting for Guffman.

Finally, and most shockingly, the fairies -- with the exception of Tatania (a fetchingly lithesome Christine Albright, last year's Juliet) -- are an all-male, gender-bending band of fey yet macho punks in tutus and combat boots. What can I say. Believe it or not, it worked. Kevin Kenerly -- always one of my favorite performers, no matter what he plays -- is superb as Oberon. I can't imagine a better portrayal of this role. And special kudos to John Tufts for nearly stealing the show as Puck, the sexiest fairy of them all. His evening-closing "If we shadows have offended," delivered with hand-held mike like some kind of cross-dressing Prince at a rock concert, brought down the house and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Everybody at Ashland appears to love this show. I heard almost no negative feed back, and even the elderly couple sitting to my right was enthusiastic about the whole thing. We aren't in Kansas anymore, fer sure.