Dream comes to life Shakespeare comedy returns to ruins for first time in a generation By: Ben Waldman Posted: 5:49 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 5, 2024

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This article was published 05/06/2024 (833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In preparing for the upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare in the Ruins has revelled in the glory and power of its bucolic setting in St. Norbert.

“It feels like we are in the Forest of Arden,” says director Rodrigo Beilfuss, referring to the Athenian setting of Shakespeare’s fanciful comedy of romantic elixirs, mischievous fairies and foolish donkey heads.

“To be in an actual forest has proven delightful, and also magical and also challenging.”

Nature is an unpredictable venue.

So far this spring, the dream has frequently been dampened by rainfall. There were 27 millimetres of precipitation on May 24, 10 more on May 30, and 26 on June 2.

Fortunately, the cast wasn’t rehearsing during that torrential Sunday tempest; still, the group has refused to let the weather get them down as they prepare for the fourth staging of Dream in the company’s 30-year history.

“We had two days of rehearsal in raincoats, ski pants and rubber boots while we were figuring out blocking,” says Hera Nalam, who plays Hermea, Snug the Joiner and Mustardseed the fairy.

But Nalam, who also serves as the production’s musical director, says she wouldn’t trade the experience of getting swept up by the weather for the world.

If anything, performing outdoors creates a variability that Nalam — who previously appeared in Timon of Athens, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night — savours as a performer.

“I find that there’s something magical here. Being outside gives you a sense of play and helps deepen your connection with your castmates. You get to know each other so intimately and profoundly,” she says of the “rain or shine” contract.

“It’s the one contract I won’t say no to.”

Before visiting the ruins, Nalam, a graduate of the University of Winnipeg’s theatre program, had never done outdoor theatre before.

“Doing SiR challenged me to tap into the roots of acting, if that makes sense. You’re out there fighting with the elements — the wind, the sun — and in that situation you have to back to the basics of acting, understanding the text, your gestures and relying on your scene partners,” she says.

Nalam is also the production’s de facto sound designer, a task the Filipinx R&B and pop performer was immediately intrigued by.

Earlier this spring, Nalam, who played guitar and sang during last year’s run of Twelfth Night, was summoned to meet Beilfuss to discuss composing an opening song to be performed before spoken lines.

The song, called Lost in the Woods, serves as a thematic prologue for the air of confusion, mystery and transformation that percolates through the ensuing five acts.

“In the depths of the forest, where shadows dance, our dreams are awakened, would you take a chance? Whispering leaves sing a mystical song, revealing secrets that we’ve buried underground for so long,” she sings.

Nalam was also responsible for working with production team member Steven Vande Vyvere on the show’s live sound effects, created by a massive drum, wood blocks, tambourines and other instruments.

“There’s one sequence where Oberon is punishing Puck for messing something up, and there’s a Darth Vader choke and a smack of the face, but everything is accompanied by a sound effect from far away,” she says.

“It’s very funny to watch and very impressive.”

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It’s all part of the edgy structure that Beilfuss adores about the Shakespearean standard, written around the same time as Romeo and Juliet.

This year’s run of Dream is the fourth production of the show in the company’s history, following runs in 1995, 2006 and 2007. The two runs in the 2000s were held off-site, so this year’s staging marks the first time the show has been performed at the ruins in 29 years.

Arne MacPherson, who played Lysander, Snug and Mustardseed in the original production and directed the 2006-2007 shows, now appears as Peter Quince the actor and Oberon the fairy king.

Fairies Titania and Puck will be played by Sharon Bajer and Ross McMillan, respectively.

“Midsummer has a pair of young lovers, but what’s slightly different that we’re doing is having the fairies played by middle-aged actors. Often, you think of Puck as a balletic, spritely, Cirque du Soleil spandex-wearing creature, and in our production we have Ross McMillan smoking a cigarette,” says Beilfuss, adding McMillan is a “famously quirky actor” who plays Puck as an “endearing weirdo.”

“This frisson, this tension between generations has been interesting to witness in the rehearsal process, because they work differently as actors. It’s been fun to watch them jam in the creation of these characters and to see these experienced actors embody the fairies with real gravitas and authority.”

The casting has revealed different sides of the play to him, the director says.

“We have this post-romantic, post-Victorian idea of child-like cherubs, but fairies for Shakespeare are quite devious, cheeky, playful and demonic, even. The way Ross, Arne and Bajer play them, there’s a nice edge.”

To Beilfuss, the show is fun and joyful, but also suffused with an existential dread.

“It can be dismissed as a wacky comedy about hallucination, but there’s something else at play I find quite scary. This revelation of how not in control of our desires we really are. I find that to be the brilliance of the play. We change allegiances so quickly and we are all victims of our own yearnings.

“It’s a provocative play about how dangerous and seductive our dreams really are.”

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com