A Midsummer Night’s Dream in February

Last week we escaped up to beautiful Oregon. Most of our holiday was spent in the Redmond/Bend area, visiting with cousins in the shadow of the breathtaking Mount Bachelor volcanic chain. A nice, relaxing time was had by all.

Pleasant though our Central Oregon sojourn was, the high point was catching the opening performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed in Ashland at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The performance was modernized, as that play so often is… but a hippie-style Volkswagen microbus? Fairies that are, well, fairies? A Theseus that looked like a cross between a greaser and a Mafia boss? It worked.

While all the actors were excellent, special kudos go to Theseus (Michael Elich), Helena (Kjerstine Anderson), and Puck (John Tufts).

Bottom (Ray Porter) stole the show. You’ve never seen such a death scene.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is playing through November 2. Highly recommended.