The High School Intermediate Actors

presented

Originally written to celebrate a royal marriage, A Midsummer Night's Dream can lay claim to being one of Shakespeare's most well-crafted works. He weaves together classic Greek mythology and native English folklore into a fabric structured like a dream. Looking into it, we the audience, like sleepers, lose our ability - and our desire - to make logical connections. Under Shakespeare's direction we dream the dream he dreams up for us. Dream's treatment of these subjects is neither light-hearted nor romantic: squint at the shadows before you, and you will see a battle of the sexes written with a full awareness of a woman's disadvantage in a society dominated by men and their laws. Hippolyta is Theseus' prisoner of war, Hermia is at the disposal of her father (even to her death), and Titania loses custody of a beloved child because Oberon drugs and humiliates her. This combination of light and dark, earth and air, high and low shines most brilliantly in the character of Bottom. Though, as his name suggests, he is a low character (in many ways an ass), his excitement about the world and his eagerness to play all the parts makes him the play's true wise man, the one who comes closest to telling us its message:

 

"Love and Reason keep little company together nowadays."
Ralph Cohen

 

May 19 & 20, 2004