BY ANGELO VALDIVIA
What: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Who: Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Canadian Opera Company, presented by Adelaide Festival with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Where: Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, 26 February
When I was 16, in a desperate bid to seem more cultured, I went to my school’s year 12 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It wasn’t that great, and the guy who played Puck, one of the lead characters, was a jerk to me the next day so I promptly put the whole performance out of my mind.
The following year, trying again to ascend towards higher art, I wagged school with some friends and bought a copy of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet on DVD. We returned to campus and got in trouble, once more tainting my memory of another of Shakespeare’s seminal works.
Since then, I haven’t really delved much into the celebrated writer’s body of work, apart from loosely based adaptations like 10 Things I Hate About You. But with A Midsummer Night’s Dream performing at this year’s Adelaide Festival, I jumped at the opportunity to give it one more try.
Returning to Adelaide’s Festival Theatre during a pandemic is a changed experience: to enter the foyer, patrons are required by security to wear face masks. The fabulous mask choices of some patrons made wandering the premises interesting. Watching fancy-looking people move about in disposable masks is novel, but seeing leopard print out in the wild, and even ones dazzled in sequins (purchasable from the theatre’s kiosk, even), put a smile under my homemade sky-blue one. Even the experience of sitting in the audience was changed by masks: not a single cough lolly wrapper could be heard! But I digress.
From the moment conductor Paul Kildea’s baton came down, Britten’s ability to set the atmosphere was palpable thanks to the sounds of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. In tandem with the music was the vivid presentation by set and costume designer Dale Ferguson, which transported me to the magical kingdom of the fairies. Accompanying the score’s moving harmonies was a large sea-green veil — the ‘dream veil’ — which blanketed the set and gently pulsated above the forest’s fairies, played by members of the Young Adelaide Voices. Truly, the staging was a sight to behold.
Soon, we’re introduced to the mythical cast of the show: Puck, played by Mark Coles Smith; Queen Tytania, played by Rachelle Durkin; and King Oberon, played by Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. All three owned their roles with grace: Smith’s energy to parade about the stage delivered a playful performance of the mischievous fairy; Durkin’s powerful voice and gravitas made her a real queen; and Cohen’s heavenly skill to float comfortably within the countertenor range. Ferguson’s costuming continued to complement their performances, particularly Tytania’s divine train dress, which required the care of a dozen-or-so fairies. I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out to trumpeter Joshua Rogan’s precise interjections which accompanied some of Smith’s movements, too.
Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena – played by Andrew Goodwin, Sally-Anne Russell, James Clayton, and Leanne Kenneally, respectively – were also portrayed with aplomb as the group of lovers entangled in Oberon’s grand scheme of deceiving his wife in order to steal a boy in her care for himself. Their interactions and chemistry play off each other delightfully as the love between each other is misconstrued by the clumsy hands of Puck.
Also wandering the forest are a troupe of thespians, The Mechanicals, who are rehearsing a play to perform for Theseus’ and Hippolyta’s wedding: Warwick Fyfe as Bottom; Louis Hurley as Flute; Douglas McNicol; Pelham Andrews as Snug; Norbert Hohl as Snout; Jeremy Tatchell as Starveling; and Lock, the black labrador, as Dog. This section of the ensemble really provided the more comical elements of Britten’s libretto, as the bumbling actors who also get swept up in events. (It’s very important to note that Lock was the only actor who received a rousing applause from the audience when he returned to the stage in a later scene. And I related to him on a spiritual level when he stared longingly at another actor’s prop sandwich.)
As wonderfully crafted as A Midsummer Night’s Dream was by its cast and production efforts, the first half of Britten’s interpretation felt slower compared to the high energy of the second. While some characters injected energy into their scenes (particularly Puck and Bottom), the first hour-and-45 minutes tends to move at a snail’s pace and there were barely any laughs from the audience. The lovers and thespians dealing with their adventure gave some variety as the narrative opened, but the scenes with Oberon and Tytania felt much the opposite. Even Oberon, who was suspended on a wire platform that levitated above the stage, mostly stood unmoving as he performed with one of the most angelic voices I’ve ever heard.
After the interval, however, is when this rendition of the tale felt like a comedy borne from William Shakespeare. The famous play-within-a-play scene took centre stage here as the wandering actors perform for Theseus (Teddy Tahu Rhodes) and Hippolyta (Fiona Campbell), accompanied by Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena. It was here when I was finally compelled to laugh out loud at the antics, as well as appreciate the dynamic artistry in everyone’s performances. Fyfe, Hurley, and Hohl’s work here really shone and elevated the life of the opera that I felt was severely lacking in Britten’s first half.
By Smith’s final words as Puck and surprise leap off the stage, I was left clapping like a giddy child by the enormous pay-off of the last hour.
As an opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream ticks all the boxes you would expect from a high-quality production: admirable design, meticulous direction, and wonderful musical performances. However, as an adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most highly regarded plays, I’m not sure Britten quite captured the magic. Dare I say, it seemed Britten indulged himself a little too much, and the pacing of the first two acts suffer for it. But then we return for the Act III, and the comedy finally arrives in a torrent of gags and whimsy. Thankfully, the performances all round were enough to make the evening an spectacle.
Images supplied. Featured image by Felix Sanchez.
