A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Reviewed by Gray Palmer
Independent Shakespeare Company
Through September 2
Though many fine qualities of Independent Shakespeare Company’s approach are evident in the Griffith Park production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream comes to life only intermittently, damaged by a persistent vocal blur, and perhaps a few miscalculations in staging. As Theseus asks in Act V, “How shall we find the concord of this discord?”
But first, just some of the virtues: David Melville plays Bottom. This actor is an Errol Flynn of idiocy, a swashbuckler of foolishness, and fans will not want to miss this latest addition to his gallery of portraits. Katie Powers-Faulk, who has contributed so much as choreographer and dancer to ISC (and does so again here) makes a smashing Hermia, whose desperate flight into the Athenian woods initiates the action. There’s a lovely performance by Bukola Ogunmola as both Peaseblossom (Titania’s attendant) and Flute (the mechanical who rehearses the role of Thisby). And we have the return to ISC of audience-pleaser Richard Azurdia as the shy Snug.
Because “Shakespeare is the happy hunting-ground of all minds that have lost their balance,” this reviewer has no intention of boring readers with pet theory, and certainly not with moralizing interpretations. But one simple craft note about speaking verse.
Peter Brook puts it best in his book, The Empty Space: “In France there are two deadly ways of playing classical tragedy. One is traditional, and this involves using a special voice, a special manner, a noble look and an elevated musical delivery… defiantly histrionic, like what we call ham… But to imitate the externals of acting only perpetuates manner—a manner hard to relate to anything at all.” Meaning is not communicated when that kind of “music” is in overdrive.
Now, a fine comic actor can slyly manipulate this form of hyper-histrionics as the picture of a fool’s self-estimation; we anticipate the pratfall, which may be delayed by a long climb up the rhetorical ladder. However, earnest commitment to such a manner is deadly. Two of the plot-lines of Dream are marred in this way. And that damages the fitness of the others — the narrative contraption is like a broken set of Chinese boxes.
Through the rattle and blur, the good intentions and attractive qualities of Aisha Kabia (as Titania) and Kelvin Morales (as Puck) can be made out.
Melissa Chalsma directs. Let’s see what happens as performances develop.
Old Zoo at Griffith Park, near the Merry-Go-Round; Wed.-Sun. 7 pm. Through September 2. (818) 710-6306, iscla.org. Running time: two hours and 30 minutes with intermission.
