March 3–13, 2016

Stuart Theatre

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Kira Hawkridge.

“Are you sure
That we are awake?
It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.”
 (Demetrius, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV, Scene I)

Local director Kira Hawkridge brought Edwardian steampunk style to Shakespeare’s famous comedy of dreamers, lovers, and fairy-inspired chaos.

On a timeless midsummer’s night, mechanical steampunk actors rehearse in the forest while Edwardian-inspired royalty fall in love, fall asleep, and fall under the spell of punk fairies.

For this production, director Kira Hawkridge and set designer Sara Ossana re-imagined Stuart Theatre. The audience seating was moved up onto the stage, to make audiences feel that they too were sharing the forest night with Titania, Oberon and their court of fairies and sprites. A canopy of light and silk was displayed overhead and aerial hammocks lined the walls. The production created an environment in which the audience experienced the action not from the outside looking in, but as a part of the fairy world.

The play’s central plot features four lovers, confused and lost in the forest. In full Edwardian dress, these young royals bring a hint H. P. Lovecraft’s style to the mystery of the night. Punked-out fairies move around and between the audience, inhabiting an aerial world that encompasses the entire theatre. They are guided by their King and Queen, Titania and Oberon, whose feuding causes chaos for all those caught in the forest night. Meanwhile and unaware of the events unfolding around them, a troupe of industrial steampunk actors, decked out in clockwork engineered costume, rehearse their play for the wedding of Duke Theseus.