"Lord, what fools these mortals  be!"  Act III, Scene II*

(*An echo of Seneca, Epistles, 1, 3)

CAST

The Chicago Sun-Times

Wednesday, July, 1998

SHOWCASE REVIEW

RECOMMENDED

By Lucia Mauro

Shakespearean updates seem to go through various cycles of popularity. For a while, the 1940’s and 1960’s were in vogue. Now the Roaring 20’s have been dancing their way through the Bard’s Elizabethan world with increasing regularity.

So, when the Oak Brook-based First Folio Shakesepeare Festival chose to set its second outdoor production, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," during the flapper era, there was a fear that the show might make more fashion than philosophical statements.

Of course, Michele Friedman Siler’s Erte-tailored costumes contribute to the play’s chic sensibility. But director Alison C. Vesely also has successfully contained the action within a strong context. Her female characters exude such an elegant air of independence that the 1920’s setting serves a purpose.

Even the incongruities of Shakespeare’s Athenians clad in English riding gear makes sense during a time when dress-up fantasies reigned supreme.

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a beloved comedy set in an enchanted forest where the battling kind and queen of the fairies (Oberon and Titania) meddle in each other’s affairs, and those of the unwitting lovers who seek refuge among their magical flora.

Ideal for the sylvan backdrop of Oak Brook’s Peabody Estate grounds, "Dream" seems to speak directly to the trees and moonlight.

Within the central story of two sets of lovers (Hermia?lysander and Helena/Demetrius) who escape their constricting environs to find true love, "Dream" incorporates the fantastical adventures of the mischievous Puck and a subplot about amateur players on their way to entertain the Duke of Athens.

Any producer runs the risk of making "Dream" (a long play to begin with) seem longer–especially by the time we reach the players’ bumbling performance of a tragic myth. But Vesely moves the action along at a rapid, highly physical pace.

Her choice to cast Robert Scogin as bombastic traveling actor Nick Bottom fills the show with tear-inducing hilarity. I can’t recall a time when I’ve laughed so uncontrollably at the figure of Bottom, transformed into a donkey, displaying the precision-paced, clueless bravura that Scogin brings to the role.

In the dual leads of Hippolyta/Titania and Theseus/Oberon, Paula Scrofano and Jim Johnson exude an aura of fanciful regality. Other standouts include Christian Gray’s spirited Lysander, who adds an enjoyable natural speaking tone to his florid lines; Julie Marie Paparella’s sweet but high-strung Hermia; Niki Sarich’s transformative Helena, and Kevin McKillip’s nimble Demetrius.

All the fairies, including Elise Kauzlaric’s caustic Puck, reveal a genuine desire to mend their mischief. Only Jim Morley’s moribund Egeus and David Silvis’ overeager Peter Quince miss the mark in an enchanting production that mingles deliciously with the surrounding stars.

The Daily Herald

Friday, June 17, 1998

IN THE QUIET OF MAYLAKE FOREST PRESERVE, SHAKESPEARE’S "A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM" LIGHTS UP THE NIGHT.

by Jack Helbig

The Peabody Estate at Mayslake Forest Preserve is an amazing setting for outdoor theater. Yes, the land includes a nice, wide grassy clearing perfect for an outdoor stage, with a small orchard (or at least a grove of crab apple trees) to the right of the stage and wide, unobstructed expanse of sky above. But the estate also features a beautiful manor house and an authentic replica of a Renaissance chapel, all nestled in the hushed darkness of the forest preserve. Just walking from your car to the stage is enough to soothe your soul and put you in the mood for some Shakespeare.

Which may explain why flaws that might have sunk other production had so little effect on this one.

The flaws (just for the record) included a sloppily painted set, stage microphones that hissed and popped and sometimes amplified voices a little too much and actors who performed stiffly during the first 10 minutes of the play.

Of course it helps that director Alison C. Vesely chose to do "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," one of Shakespeare’s best written and most winning comedies. The play, about a pair of hapless lovers who spend a night in a magical forest populated by fairies, sprites and other mischievous creatures of the night, is a perennial favorite.

Every outdoor Shakespeare festival eventually does "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," and with reason. The play is perfect for an outdoor performance and night air adds to the atmosphere—in a play set mostly at night. One can be lulled into thinking the comedy directs itself, but it doesn’t especially the comic subplot involving a group of local yokel theatrical amateurs rehearsing what might be the worst play-within-a-play in English theater.

Happily, director Vesely knows what she is doing. Trained in the folio style of directing, Vesely focuses on the text with the result that all of the actors speak their lines loud and clear. Most amazing of all, they really seem to understand everything they say.

True, Vesely has a concept for her show (everyone who approaches Shakespeare these days has a concept), but her idea of setting the play in the Jazz Age does give costume designer Michele Friedman Siler an excuse to clothe everyone in 1920’s garb.

Vesely’s production would have seemed almost as strong if she had let her actors perform in whatever they wore to the theater that night, but this says as much about the quality of the actors she has found for her show as it does about her direction.

And what actors! The cast is led by no less a talent than Paula Scrofano, who can bring life even to a dry, rotten play like "Nunsense." Scrofano is funny and likeable as Titania, the slightly daft, easily angered queen of the fairies. And Robert Scogin, a veteran of a thousand Shakespeare plays, is as funny as can be as the oafish Nick Bottom, a man who, for his troubles, is transformed into a half man, half donkey half way through the story.

As I noted above, some of the supporting roles are not as well cast as one would hope. Jim Johnson doesn’t quite have the range or the power to play either Theseus, Duke of Athens, or Oberon, King of the Fairies. And Jim Morley’s wooden performance as the stubborn father, whose refusal to marry his daughter to the man she loves sets the story in motion, really belongs in a less professional setting.

But most of the most important roles in the show are filled with actors like Julie Marie Paparella and Christian Gray, actors who don’t just play their parts, they become them. Paparella in particular really shines as the dark beauty Hermia, around whom the love plot turns. Likewise, Niki Sarich, Kevin McKillip, and Gray are perfect foils to Paparella as all four become entangled in a love knot as hilarious as it is convoluted.

And whenever the production is in danger of sagging, in walk Scrofano and Scogin, both of them in top form.

There is so much right about this production that it transcends its own limitations and shortcomings to create a version of this great, romantic comedy classic that indeed passes like some sweet midsummer night’s dream.

The Naperville Sun

July, 1998

OUTDOOR SETTING ENHANCES ‘DREAM’

by Lisa Pecoraro Ayres

The First Folio Shakespeare Festival’s second season offers a pleasing presentation of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" at the Peabody Estate at Mayslake, in Oak Brook. A strong cast and sylvan setting combine to make it a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Imagination’s power to transform the everyday world is an important theme of the play, setting the comedy in the 1920’s reinforces this theme, although, at first, the time period is problematic.

The play opens four days before Theseus, Duke of Athens, will wed Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, whom he has defeated in battle. The happy anticipation of the pair is interrupted by Egeus, Theseus’s estate manager, whose daughter, Hermia, wishes to marry Lysander, the man of her choice, rather than Demetrius, her father’s choice for her. Egeus comes to ask Theseus to uphold the "ancient privilege of Athens," that he may dispose of Hermia according to his own wishes: "Either to this gentleman, or to her death, according to our law." With pants-suit clad Hippolyta looking on in displeasure, the audience needs all of its imagination in this initial scene to accept the 1920’s setting.

But the actors themselves quickly claim their roles and the audience’s attention. Julie Marie Paparella is an engaging Hermia, conveying throughout the play quickness, passion, and humor. Christian Gray is a smooth Lysander, sometimes a bit flippant but thoroughly suave.

A second pair of lovers has been separated by Egeus’s wish: Demetrius once was engaged to Helena, Hermia’s friend, but now scorns her, while she continues to love him. Kevin McKillip as Demetrius, and Niki Sarich, as Helena, both excel in their roles as clumsy pursuers. Sarich’s Helena is especially sympathetic.

The play hovers halfway between the practical law and order world of Theseus, and the fairy world ruled by Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies. Jim Johnson, in the duel roles of Theseus and Oberon, makes the transition easily, and is an especially appealing Oberon, convincingly graceful within his magic realm.

Paula Scrofano as Hippolyta and Titania seems more comfortable in the role of Titania, perhaps because she has more to do in this persona. Hippolyta has few lines, and Srofano resorts to smiling broadly to convey the Amazon queen’s independent nature. She is stronger as Titania, and has a broader range as she spars with Oberon and cavorts with her attendants.

The mischievous Puck makes trouble in both realms, and Elise Kauzlaric plays on Puck’s annoying and sometimes malicious tendencies by making him sound a little too much like the Wicked Witch of the West.

Some of the play’s most enjoyable moments occur in the last act, during the play-within-a-play to celebrate the weddings, as presented by Nick Bottom and company. Robert Scogin is exceptional as the extremely self-assured Bottom; John Nygro as Snug and Matt Lauterbach as Robin Starveling both deserve special mention for their well-timed and hilarious reactions to Bottom’s antics.

Scenic designer Christopher Jensen wisely doesn’t attempt to compete with the beauty of the outdoor setting, but instead reflects and interprets it on stage with sylvan backdrop. Especially effective on the darkened stage between the last acts were the glowing, Japanese white paper lanterns, the illuminated round cut-out atop the backdrop, and the full moon, itself rising above the stage.

Alison Vesely, First Folio’s artistic director, deserves credit for this year’s highly entertaining production. Audiences will be encouraged to look forward to next year’s offering with interest.