Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Love’s Errant Eyes

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 148 complains: “O me, what eyes hath love put in my head,/ Which have no correspondence with true sight!/ Or if they have, where is my judgment fled,/ That censures falsely what they see aright?” In this sense, love isn’t blind; it misreads. It trumps reason and judgment and — when aided by Puck’s love-in-idleness juice in A Midsummer Night’s Dream — spins the known world on its ­ear.

For the La Jolla Playhouse, director Christopher Ashley stages Dream as if the audience saw through love’s errant eyes. Neil Patel’s set opens with tall, silver walls, a two-story fireplace, and a quintet of musicians around a baby grand piano. David C. Woolard’s Victorian costumes — choking collars for the men and corsets for the women — cinch the period, as do the classical strains of Felix ­Mendelssohn.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In the play, rigid Athenian law dominates. Duke Theseus tells young Hermina, who wants to marry against her stern father Egeus’s wishes, “To you your father should be as a god.” She’s just a wax form that Egeus “imprinted,” Theseus adds, and he has the power to “disfigure” her if he ­wants.

Four lovers flee from Theseus’s repressive court to a palace wood three miles from Athens. Transformations and mismatches, prompted by Puck’s flowery juice, provide surrealistic, ocular proof for Sonnet 148. To complete the inversion, Shakespeare has Bottom, the weaver/thespian become an ass and — in theater’s most improbable combination — beloved of Titania, the Fairy ­Queen.

When the lovers flee, the playhouse set goes on tilt. The piano rises, spins, and dangles upside-down in midair; the fireplace now burns aloft; the chandelier, a ring of crystal globes, rises from the floor. Curtains sway, and white birds or butterflies — no, wait: they’re musical scores! — flutter about. Officious maids become sprites and fairies. One of them, Cobweb (Tatyana Petruk), twists and floats down two long silk sashes. The lovers don’t flee to a wood. They enter a dreamscape by Cirque du ­Soleil.

A large orchestra performs Mendelssohn and original work by Mark Bennett (musicians come from the San Diego Youth Symphony; like the San Diego Rep, which uses students from the School of Creative and Performing Arts for Hairspray, the playhouse found a creative way to have live instruments performed onstage). Mendelssohn’s feather-light/sprinter-fleet music accompanies scenes and almost every word. Even the young changeling, coveted by both Oberon and Titania, plays a flute. And when Titania (the wonderful Charlayne Woodard) and the First Fairy (Amanda Naughton, in fine voice) sing, the production ­soars.

Visually, it’s a big Julie Taymor–like dazzler. The director has encouraged near-constant movement, be it a prop or a person (one of the fairies, for example, provides physical gestures for a lover’s pain). But often the busy movements, and the accompanying music, upstage the speakers. Other choices are also ­questionable.

In the script, the lovers are teenagers — and most likely young ones at that, Hermia and Helena being around 14 or 15. In keeping with his upside-down approach, Ashley cast much older actors in the roles. But they behave like frantic teens: almost every move is outsized, and many so forced they make doing comedy look like hard ­work.

Scholars quibble that the actor playing Philostrate, Theseus’s master of revels, cannot also play Puck, since the script affords no room for the costume change. Somehow Martin Moran pulls it off (and puts it on, as t’were, in record time). Although his Puck’s a mite long in the tooth, Moran gives the final speech (“if we shadows have offended”) a memorable ­reading.

The real “juice” of Dream isn’t Puck’s world-warping love-in-idleness: it’s the language. But few in the cast relish it (among them Jonathan McMurtry’s tyrannical Egeus and Daniel Oreskes’s sometimes stiff Theseus/Oberon). Others treat it like utilitarian prose. The worst offender is Lucas Caleb Rooney’s Bottom. Shakespeare laced this part with built-in humor. But Rooney, as solemn as Hamlet, neglects malapropisms (“odious” for “odorous”), misses verbal jokes (“I see a voice” should get a big laugh), and, when Bottom wants to play Thisbe as well as Pyramus, throws the egocentric intrusion, which practically defines the character in an instant, ­away.

At the beginning of Act 5, Theseus and Hippolyta discuss dreams (and, according to my unerring mentor, James L. Calderwood, theatrical illusion). Ever the rationalist, Theseus says dreams (especially envisioned by lunatics, lovers, and poets) are just tricks of “strong imagination.” They merely give “airy nothing a local habitation and a name.” Then vanish. Hippolyta disagrees (in the process suggesting parity in their marriage). “Fancy’s images,” she says, can “grow to something of great constancy.” The playhouse’s Dream aligns more with Theseus than Hippolyta: a visually stunning, entertaining evening, but not something of “great ­constancy.” ■

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 148 complains: “O me, what eyes hath love put in my head,/ Which have no correspondence with true sight!/ Or if they have, where is my judgment fled,/ That censures falsely what they see aright?” In this sense, love isn’t blind; it misreads. It trumps reason and judgment and — when aided by Puck’s love-in-idleness juice in A Midsummer Night’s Dream — spins the known world on its ­ear.

For the La Jolla Playhouse, director Christopher Ashley stages Dream as if the audience saw through love’s errant eyes. Neil Patel’s set opens with tall, silver walls, a two-story fireplace, and a quintet of musicians around a baby grand piano. David C. Woolard’s Victorian costumes — choking collars for the men and corsets for the women — cinch the period, as do the classical strains of Felix ­Mendelssohn.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In the play, rigid Athenian law dominates. Duke Theseus tells young Hermina, who wants to marry against her stern father Egeus’s wishes, “To you your father should be as a god.” She’s just a wax form that Egeus “imprinted,” Theseus adds, and he has the power to “disfigure” her if he ­wants.

Four lovers flee from Theseus’s repressive court to a palace wood three miles from Athens. Transformations and mismatches, prompted by Puck’s flowery juice, provide surrealistic, ocular proof for Sonnet 148. To complete the inversion, Shakespeare has Bottom, the weaver/thespian become an ass and — in theater’s most improbable combination — beloved of Titania, the Fairy ­Queen.

When the lovers flee, the playhouse set goes on tilt. The piano rises, spins, and dangles upside-down in midair; the fireplace now burns aloft; the chandelier, a ring of crystal globes, rises from the floor. Curtains sway, and white birds or butterflies — no, wait: they’re musical scores! — flutter about. Officious maids become sprites and fairies. One of them, Cobweb (Tatyana Petruk), twists and floats down two long silk sashes. The lovers don’t flee to a wood. They enter a dreamscape by Cirque du ­Soleil.

A large orchestra performs Mendelssohn and original work by Mark Bennett (musicians come from the San Diego Youth Symphony; like the San Diego Rep, which uses students from the School of Creative and Performing Arts for Hairspray, the playhouse found a creative way to have live instruments performed onstage). Mendelssohn’s feather-light/sprinter-fleet music accompanies scenes and almost every word. Even the young changeling, coveted by both Oberon and Titania, plays a flute. And when Titania (the wonderful Charlayne Woodard) and the First Fairy (Amanda Naughton, in fine voice) sing, the production ­soars.

Visually, it’s a big Julie Taymor–like dazzler. The director has encouraged near-constant movement, be it a prop or a person (one of the fairies, for example, provides physical gestures for a lover’s pain). But often the busy movements, and the accompanying music, upstage the speakers. Other choices are also ­questionable.

In the script, the lovers are teenagers — and most likely young ones at that, Hermia and Helena being around 14 or 15. In keeping with his upside-down approach, Ashley cast much older actors in the roles. But they behave like frantic teens: almost every move is outsized, and many so forced they make doing comedy look like hard ­work.

Scholars quibble that the actor playing Philostrate, Theseus’s master of revels, cannot also play Puck, since the script affords no room for the costume change. Somehow Martin Moran pulls it off (and puts it on, as t’were, in record time). Although his Puck’s a mite long in the tooth, Moran gives the final speech (“if we shadows have offended”) a memorable ­reading.

The real “juice” of Dream isn’t Puck’s world-warping love-in-idleness: it’s the language. But few in the cast relish it (among them Jonathan McMurtry’s tyrannical Egeus and Daniel Oreskes’s sometimes stiff Theseus/Oberon). Others treat it like utilitarian prose. The worst offender is Lucas Caleb Rooney’s Bottom. Shakespeare laced this part with built-in humor. But Rooney, as solemn as Hamlet, neglects malapropisms (“odious” for “odorous”), misses verbal jokes (“I see a voice” should get a big laugh), and, when Bottom wants to play Thisbe as well as Pyramus, throws the egocentric intrusion, which practically defines the character in an instant, ­away.

At the beginning of Act 5, Theseus and Hippolyta discuss dreams (and, according to my unerring mentor, James L. Calderwood, theatrical illusion). Ever the rationalist, Theseus says dreams (especially envisioned by lunatics, lovers, and poets) are just tricks of “strong imagination.” They merely give “airy nothing a local habitation and a name.” Then vanish. Hippolyta disagrees (in the process suggesting parity in their marriage). “Fancy’s images,” she says, can “grow to something of great constancy.” The playhouse’s Dream aligns more with Theseus than Hippolyta: a visually stunning, entertaining evening, but not something of “great ­constancy.” ■

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Next Article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.