A Midsummer Night's Dream: Performance Notes

Director Cameron Knight sees these love stories relevant for our day, too, exploring themes of sexuality and gender identity and showing experiences we can identify with: unrequited love, betrayals, marital quarrels, mistaken identities, the crazy pursuit of the object of one’s affection, heartache, and tears—with liberal doses of a magical potion to stir the pot. One of the most quotable quotes from the play captures all this succinctly: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” In another equally well-known quote from "Dream" Puck declares, “Lord, what fools these mortals be,” as he observes the young Athenians’ silliness. Knight observes, “We watch people struggling with how they’re perceived, what control they have or don’t have over their lives, and how they strive to achieve their dreams.” This, too, rings true today, as we are obsessed with our smart phones, social media, the unending news cycles, fretting over inconsequential things, and trying to be perfect when we should simply not take ourselves so seriously—and chill! And finally, a brief mention is in order of the themes of sleep and dreams (the word is in the title, after all!). There is a lot of sleeping going on in the play. Knight believes that healing happens when we sleep and dream—a time when we are most vulnerable and unable to control our lives—and we emerge from sleep transformed. Witnessing that transformation in the characters is a healing experience for the audience.  And a final word from Cameron Knight: “Don’t bring any pre-conceived notions about Shakespeare to the play. Just know that it will be an exciting time.”