Midsummer Night’s Dream at Maynardville

Thanks to Mrs Fischer, I attented the Maynardville Open Air Theatre production last Wednesday, along with ISCT’s drama and literature classes. It was my first live Shakespeare performance and my second live theatre experience, and since I’d only read the first act of the night’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was going in nearly blind. This was also my first of Shakespeare’s comedies, and while I’d read some of his tragic works, I knew this new genre would be a different matter altogether.

Each school in attendance was seated together, all of us from ISCT on the right-hand side of the aisle, with a good view of the stage. We had ample time to take in the setting before the play began. Around the stage and seating was the foliage of Maynardville – green hedges and trees artfully lit to cast impressive shadows – which framed the stage, itself covered in green astroturf. Two antique-looking double beds, strung with leaves and flowers, made up the bulk of the set and were the focal point of the play’s action. During the runtime, these beds would be used to a very clever effect: They were features of a landscape, the fairy king and queen’s beds, hiding places, and even the stage for the play-within-a-play. 

For those who don’t know, the story takes place over a single night in the woods outside of ancient Athens. Two men, Lysander and Demetrius, vie for the affection of Hermia and Helena, the most beautiful girls in the city. As they make their way into a forest, each falls under the magical influence of the squabbling fairy royalty Oberon and Titania. Puck, the fairy servant, manipulates the affections of the four into various love triangles throughout the night. All the while, Nick Bottom and his acting troupe prepare a play (The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, whose title takes longer to say than its own script), getting ready just in time to perform for the eventually righted couples. 

Now, I knew that Shakespeare could be funny. I even knew that he could be lewd. What I expected from a “comedy,” however, was something subtle and ironic—something accompanied by polite tittering from the crowd, by knowing chuckles. Not so in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play, or at least the performance, was genuinely hilarious. Side-splittingly so. I laughed hard the entire time, both a testament to Shakespeare’s humour and the vitality of the actors. Through the physical and visual aspects of their performance, they were able to add incredible substance and personality to their characters, lines, and jokes. I’d heard the adage that nobody gets Shakespeare until they see it live, but I only really understood this with the help of the actors. Their experienced delivery and talented physical performances unabashedly brought out every innuendo and wordplay from the original script. Especially impressive, in my opinion, was Mark Elderkin as the bumbling actor Nick Bottom, who subtly blended the character’s gauche humour with his endearing enthusiasm. 

If the play is a bit surreal, it would appear that Shakespeare knew this full well, even titling it accordingly. The fever-dream quality of the farcical plot was especially interesting to me because the play seems to know it: Puck wraps things up by apologising to the audience, saying that if these absurdities have offended them, they should think of it as a dream so that “all is mended.” The play joyfully assumes its role as an escape from everyday life – perfect for busy AS and IGCSE students – into a world of bizarre, improbable hilarities and completely undeserved happy endings. 

This Shakespeare production was all-in-all a fantastic experience. Thank you to Mrs Fischer and everyone else involved!

– By Sam