This year AHS Theatre Without Borders was once again selected to participate in Shakespearience , a theater program offered to DC metro area schools by the Shakespeare Theatre Company. On Thursday December 20, 2012 TWB students attended the magical Shakespearean comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play, directed by Ethan McSweeny, combined traditional Elizabethan theater with commedia del’arte. Although it ran over two hours, the performance was so mesmerizing, the audience barely noticed how quickly time passed.
The play begins with a couple eloping in the forest. Rather than marry a man, Demetrius, she doesn’t love, Hermia runs away with her lover, Lysander. Hermia confides in her friend Helena, who is in love with Demetrius and hopes to get his attention. On the other side of the forest, the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania, are fighting about who will be the guardian to their fairy child. Oberon decides to play a trick on Titania and asks his servant Puck to cast a spell. Puck obeys his master’s orders, but mixes up the characters’ identity. This leads to hilarious conflict, but which (as in most of Shakespeare’s comedies) ends happily in marriage.
Although the acting overall was excellent, two performances in particular were outstanding: Tim Campbell made a handsome and impressive Oberon. Puck, played by the talented, hyperactive Adam Green, was often the center of the performance. His sense of fun and delight while tricking mortals (as in one scene where he watches the lovers quarrelling while eating a box of popcorn) often kept the audience in stitches.
As part of their collaboration with STC, AHS Theatre Without Borders will perform their own version of Midsummer on 9 May 2013. As the name implies, AHS Theatre Without Borders is made up of more than thirty students representing a large piece of the world, coming from Africa, Asia, South and Central America. Even though English is the second language, this group of attracts a large, diverse audience whenever they perform.
We highly recommended that Annandale students attend A Midsummer’s Night Dream and other STC performances. It’s an educational and fun way to expose students to English literature.
