Writer: Jeffrey Whitty (a modern verse adaptation of William Shakespeare’s original)
Director: Kim Weild
Kim Weild is a director with a good sense of timing and a trained eye for physicality, qualities that make her production of Midsummer! much more than a student-led ensemble play. What could easily have felt like an academic exercise instead becomes a remarkably mature piece of theatre, perfectly apt for the discerning Fringe audience. The solid casting and the evident training of the performers at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama certainly help. So does Jeffrey Whitty’s rewriting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which brings out all its flavours, so to speak, without straying too far from the original. The result can almost pass for professional adult theatre.
The staging employs the by-now familiar gender-bending approach seen in many recent Shakespeare adaptations, most notably by switching the genders of Oberon and Titania, but otherwise retains classical costumes and a recognisably Shakespearean setting, giving the production a pleasing sense of continuity with the original. More importantly, the multiracial cast switches between parts and costumes with such virtuosity that the constant transformation of the stage itself becomes part of the dream state the play requires for its exuberance and comic effect.
That exuberance comes through particularly in Hermia’s immense energy, the rotund joviality of the ingeniously cross-cast Peter Quince, Helena’s chemistry with Demetrius—whose sexual innuendos are both courageous and appropriate—and, finally, a versatile Bottom whose misplaced machismo provides a steady stream of laughs. It is wonderful to see a director unafraid to push physicality to the limit, particularly in the double-wooing scene and the deliciously homoerotic exchanges between the two male courtiers. The technical elements support the action beautifully, with appropriate lighting and a theatre-in-the-round configuration that could hardly be more fitting for the expansive unfolding of the characters’ shenanigans. Overall, this is a memorable production from a promising young cast, given a confidence and precision that speak highly of both their training and Weild’s direction.
Runs until August 19 2026 | Image: Contributed
