For the past 18 years, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been in heavy rotation at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Counting the current mainstage production, there have been six Midsummers since 2000, a record that none of Shakespeare’s other 36 (that we know of) plays comes close to approaching.
The lights come up to reveal an Athenian court dominated by a massive marble (or marble-looking) wall that evokes Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” Like the fallen monument of the poem, the great wall of Athens topples to insignificance as the regimented world of the court morphs into an enchanted forest. The engineering at play here is awe-inspiring. Our perspective shifts: we’re looking at plant life as if through the eyes of insects, gazing up at flowers the size of houses sitting on stalks the size of redwoods. The effect is like a supersized Hieronymus Bosch painting, heightened by Greg Hofmann and Jesse Klug’s color- saturated lighting design.
In all, Midsummer sounds great. It looks great. It will hold your attention. There is, to paraphrase Tim Gunn, a lot of look here. But it’s as substantial as pixie dust. Chicago Shakes has the means to go big with innovation and substance. Midsummer goes big, but mostly just on appearance. v
Through 1/27/19: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6:30 PM, Tue 7:30 PM; no performance Tue 12/25 or 1/1, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $20-$88.
