APT Theater Review: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Alarice McPark, Simpson Street Free Press

Two mischievous couples, fairies, and a band of disastrous players. The Simpson Street Free Press student writers traveled to Spring Green, Wisconsin, to watch the charming production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” put on by the American Players Theater (APT).

The play by William Shakespeare, written around the mid-1500s, is set in Ancient Greece but has a more fable-like quality. There are three main conflicts: the lovers, the fairies, and the players.

Act 1, Scene 1 features the lovers. Egeus (played by David Alan Anderson) is forcing his daughter, Hermia (Samantha Newcomb), to marry Demetrius (Josh Krause). Luckily, Hermia and her lover Lysander (Xavier Edward King) escape to Athens. Meanwhile, Helena (Maggie Cramer), Hermia’s best friend, unrequitedly swoons over Demetrius and eventually follows him as he trails after Hermia and Lysander.

In the woods, Oberon (Jim DeVita), the king of fairies, plots to get back at his wife, Titania (Elizabeth Ledo), for their earlier squabble. He calls upon his loyal yet mischievous servants, the Pucks (played by Joshua M. Castille and Casey Hoekstra). In the original play, Puck is portrayed as a single entity, but APT creatively shows him as two fairies sharing lines and acting as one fluid character.

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