a midsummer night’s dream william shakespeare artist note: trish lindstrÖm I was first introduced to Shakespeare at his birthday party in Grade Six. Our drama teacher, a Bard-fanatic, was the party’s host and as part of the celebration, we were instructed to learn (by heart) two of Hamlet’s soliloquies. On the day of the fiesta, before dipping into any birthday cake or Tang, we drew straws to determine which speech we would present in front of the class; Blue Straw meant, “To be or not to be…”; Orange, “O, that this too sullied flesh…”. To safeguard against disaster, I strategically planted a friend in the front row to mouth the words. I was barely through the fifth line when, with Orange Straw asphyxiating in my sweaty palm, it was clear that lip-reading would be my only refuge… A loyal fan of Soulpepper since it's inception, I felt like a star-struck teenager when we sat around the table to read this Dream for the first time. I was surrounded by artists whom I had revered for years. To my right: Oliver Dennis, who had, time and time again, made me hysterical with laughter, moved me to tears, and who continues to inspire me to Act Better. To my left: Ins Choi, whose talent I had only marvelled at from a distance; from The Odyssey at Stratford, to his work with the Soulpepper Academy (a group of individuals who redefine “ensemble”). Rick Roberts, our sock-footed captain, sat at the helm, well-equipped with razor-sharp wit and infinite imagination. So began our DREAMY romp… It is two decades since Mr. Comeau’s Hamlet blitz and I’m being lifted by fairy hunks in hoodies and aroused by a buck-tooth-biteplated ass to the tune of Wine Glass. This must be Purple Straw. Pinch me. Could it all be but a mid-winter’s dream?
Trish LindstrÖm, Tatania & Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
illustration: chris silas neal
a midsummer night’s dream william shakespeare
background notes uk 1595
Production
cast
Rick Roberts Director
Douglas John Alan Fairie
Ken MacKenzie Set & costume designer
Derek Boyes Starveling/Fairie
Lorenzo Savoini lighting designer
Ins Choi Theseus/Oberon/Fairie
Mike Ross sound designer, musical director & composer
Tatjana Cornij 1st Fairie
Alison Peddie production stage manager Krista Blackwood assistant stage manager Susanne Lankin apprentice stage manager Jessica Severin rehearsal stage manager Sarah Miller rehearsal assistant stage manager Jane Johanson movement coach Toby Malone dramaturg Kelly McEvenue alexander coach
Oliver Dennis Bottom/Fairie Michael Hanrahan Quince/Fairie John Jarvis Snout/Fairie Trish Lindström Hippolyta/Tatania/Fairie Ken MacKenzie Fairie Abena Malika Hermia/Fairie Gregory Prest Puck Karen Rae Helena/Fairie Jason Rothery Philostrate /Fairie Mike Ross Lysander/Fairie Michael Simpson Flute/Fairie Brendan Wall Demetrius/Fairie William Webster Snug/Egeus/Fairie
In this play Shakespeare takes us deeply into the fragility, unpredictability and fantastical nature of our dreams. Not only our night-side-of-the-eye dreams, but the cherished visions of our hearts as well: that we will find a perfect mate, that our work will find favour with others, that our children will obey us and recognize that we want what’s best for them. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is hilarious, full of all the hallmarks of comedy: mistaken identity, ridiculous (perhaps nowadays we might say “inappropriate”) love, and the zing of expert wordplay. However, as with a dream, the action is grounded in deeper themes. A serious consideration of love in its many guises is woven through the whole play. There are the complexities of adult love, as personified both by Theseus who has fallen for Hippolyta, the Amazon queen he has conquered, and by Oberon and Titania, whose long marriage has devolved into “the forgeries of jealousy”. Then we have the trauma of Helena, whose unrequited love for Demetrius is set alongside the reckless passion of first love that causes her best friend Hermia to run away to the forest with Lysander so they can be together. Parental love (or perhaps parental longing for control) is expressed through Egeus, who threatens his daughter Hermia with death if she doesn’t marry the man he’s chosen for her, and through Tatania’s fierce possessiveness of her adopted boy. A great deal of the story deals with breaking free of parental restraints, and being free to make your own choices. Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius are all on the brink of adulthood. Passionate, changeable, certain of everything, these utterly recognizable young people escape to the forest. Here they test their readiness for freedom and confront the price of their choices. The forest is full of wildness, strange creatures and primal fears. It is a place, for example, where you can lose your virginity. Hermia is all too aware of this danger, insisting that Lysander sleep a distance away from her to preserve her modesty. When they leave Athens, both Lysander and Demetrius are madly in love with Hermia. Due to the mistakes of the mischievous Puck, by the time their night in the woods is through both boys will be equally as passionately in love with Helena. Puck’s mistakes and their own make for a night of mayhem that ends in exhaustion. Only when they’ve all collapsed on the ground in sleep can everything finally be made right. Only after they have passed through the tests of this night can they emerge as fully functioning adults. (We hope.) Shakespeare’s genius is that he doesn’t end the play there. In the final act, with the Pyramus and Thisbe play by the mechanicals, we see what might have happened to the lovers if the play had been a tragedy. Paradoxically, this takes the comedy to a sublime level. This painfully earnest, riotously terrible production is marvellously summed up by Theseus: “Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! This is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.” The title has it right: only a dream could so blithely contain such impossible contradictions. Playwright Biography Often regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare is firmly ingrained in our cultural imagination. A superlative dramatist with some 38 surviving plays, his works have seen more performances than any other playwright in history and have been translated into every major living language. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare penned most of his known writing between 1589 and 1613, including Romeo & Juliet (1594-5), As You Like It (1599), Hamlet (1599-1600), King Lear (1603-6), Macbeth (1603-6), and The Tempest (1611).
Conceptual development workshopped by Mike Ross and the Soulpepper Academy. There will be one 20-minute intermission. Approximate running time 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.
soulpepper production J. Andrew Hillman associate technical director
Steve Hudak scenic artist
Phil Atfield, Geoff Hughes
Jacqueline Robertson-Cull
cutter
head of hair & makeup
Barbera Cassidy, Lisa Farinaccio, Ina Kerklaan
Katarzyna Chopican millinery
Ryan Wilson carpenter
Greg Chambers, Vanessa Janiszewski props builders
sewers
Duncan Johnstone painter
Janet Pym, Natalie Swiercz dressers
Sarah Armstrong
David Rayfield
costume breakdown artist
head scenic artist
Karen Rodd mask artist soulpepper thanks: Mar-Lyn Lumber Sales Ltd., Ontario Staging Ltd., Smartrisk.ca, Ben Renzella, PRG Toronto, David Hoekstra, Megan Cummings (wardrobe co-op student), Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, JD International. Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’Equity Association.
YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT