Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Chaotic Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs

This edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream was not chaotic at all, despite the name of presenting company. It was a straight-up, by-the-rules staging of Shakespeare's most popular piece.

That doesn't mean that it was tidy or even, though. Director Michael Floyd and the Chaotic Theatre band had some assorted neat ideas but little vision to tie them together.

Warm-up and intermission music was by the two guitars, drum and woman singer of a combo named 11 Cent Confidence, looking and playing like a standard Austin garage band and camping out solemnly in deep stage right as the play proceeded. They did an interlude or two of music for the faeries.

For some reason, unexplained, the stage was dressed with mounds of garbage left and right.

Some of the company were very good indeed, while others were barely in control of their speech and movement. Andrew Black was particularly accomplished at creating the hammy self-importance of Bottom as weaver, ass and actor. His minimalist framework donkey head dress, a magic piece of costuming, was credited to Cassie Padgett and/or Tara Bland.

Red-headed Franc Freye as Lysander the rival lover was almost as good. But compare the very different moments when those two awakened with potion-induced heart throbs for woebegone Helena: Freye seemed groggy and hypnotized, while Matthews in his turn was visibly struck dumb and literally enchanted by the sight of her. 

Jane Kilgore as the put-upon Helena was suitably bewildered. She had her lines down pat but at times seemed uncertain just what to do with her hands or where to look. Whether by decision or omission, director Michael Floyd appeared not to have defined for his company a relation with the audience, which was full and friendly that Friday evening. Soliloquies generally went into empty air, with actor's eyes directed about two feet above the heads of the audience. A similar awkwardness of attitude occurred during the Act V play by the rude mechanicals, who appeared to suspend animation when the court folk behind them make their commentaries. 

Caleb Perkins stole every scene as Puck -- athletic, preening, impossibly balletic and ever in motion, pouting, posturing and flaming. His loquacity and undulation made Kevin Frances as fairy king Oberon look and sound like a good-hearted farm boy by comparison.

Elizabeth Cooper as fairy queen Titania and Kara Juarez Jones as Hyppolyta the Duke's future bride were similar in appearance and mannerism, probably by coincidence rather than by design.

Some deftly realized cameos: Traci Koesis as Snug the joiner (Lion, extempore, with roaring) was bright-eyed and adorable; Elexia Lowe as the fairy Cobweb had got some annoyed Vampirella in her, just the sharp tonic needed for that sugary fairy world.

In sum, this production was an agreeable exercise in community theatre, the community encompassing some seasoned players, some naturals and some tyros. It so happened that the proprietors of this garage-like space, the Off Center, are Austin's innovative, collegial band of artists the Rude Mechanicals, currently participating in the Humana new play festival in Kentucky. 

While the Rudes were away, the mechanicals could play -- enjoying, exercising, and polishing their craft.

EXTRA

Click to view program for A Midsummer Night's Dream by Chaotic Theatre Company (.pdf, 2.7 MB)

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A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare
Chaotic Theatre Company