age 6 University Daily Kansan, April 29, 1981
On Campus
TODAY
THE EL TEATRO DE LA ESPERANZA WORKSHOP will begin at 10 a.m. in the Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall.
LA MERA ENSPANOLA (Spanish Table) will
meet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. in 3059 Wescoe.
THE UNIVERSITY FORUM will discuss "In Faculty-Student" Government Working?" at 11:45 a.m. in the Ecumenical Christian Ministry Center.
AN ART DEPARTMENT SLIDE LECTURE by Dean Snyder, Chicago sculptor, will be shown at 2 p.m. in the Room of Forum of the Union.
THE SCIEOLOGY COLLOQUIUM will present Cavain on "The Life Cycle of Communities" and Faye on "Culture and Development."
THE KU SAILING CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Pavilion of the Union.
THE EAST ASIAN STUDIES FACILITY RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM will present Wallace Johnson on "Criminal Procedures in the United States" at $ p.m. in the International Room of the Union.
THE ELE TEATRO DE LA ESPERAZANA,
Chicago theater group, will perform at 8 p.m. in
the University Theatre. Admission is free, but
murphy Hall Box Office for further information.
Tomorrow
LA MESA ESPANOLA (Spanish Table) will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in 3059 Wescow. All native speakers and students of Spanish are welcome.
THE SOCIology COLLOQUIUM will host Non Glaser, Portland State University, on "Making More Work: Capitalism Reorganizes" at 3:30 p.m in the Walnut Room of the Room.
Comedy hampered by many excesses
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare. Final performances at 8 p.m., May 1 and 2 at the University Theatre.
By PAUL STEPHEN LIM Contributing Reviewer
Among the many things we do not know about Shakespeare is why he wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but scholars have suggested that this most beloved of Shakespeare's comedies was probably first performed at the Globe, and then offered as an entertainment for a great wedding, and that Queen Elizabeth herself was probably in the audience.
Given these probabilities, the current production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Murphy Hall attempts to turn the University Theatre into a palace by hanging three shabby-looking chandeliers to encourage our willing support for students. The audience behind the actors onstage so that everyone can pretend the proscenium does not exist.
AS FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH, if by some magic she should be in this "palace," she can sit anywhere she wants, but she'll discover soon enough that there isn't a good seat in the house. Maybe she'll have to change her seat three times, as I did, before finally resigning herself to seeing a lot of backs and hearing a lot of garbled speech.
Just be thankful that, of the many would-be thespians onstage, there are three who not only seem to know what they're saying but who also manage to make themselves heard and uninterrupted. Mark Rector is a fierce Hermina, Mark Rector as an obsequious Quince and Doug Weaver as a well-rounded Bottom.
Weaver gets the biggest laughs of the evening
for his various metamorphosis—when, as an ass with all the accompanying appendices, he tries to hide his gargantian organ from the prying eyes of Titanin; and later, when he is back to meet Methought with the lines, "Methught was, and methought I met with." The fool if he will offer to say what methought I had."
The rest of the actors, unfortunately, are not as gifted as Weaver, though what they lack in things else they try to make up for by way of overstating their pieces and, in all instances, youthful exuberance.
Even this particular plus, however, is turned into a minus when we see the precious energy being dispersed hither and thither – to the back, to the front, and oftentimes even into the wings—simply because the audience is seated at opposite ends of the theater and the actors literally do not know which way to focus and direct their energies.
AS THOUGH DICHOTOMIZING THE AUDIENCE was not disastrous enough, the director of this production goes on to cast three different people as Puck. The idea may have seemed appealing in theory but, in practice, it is merely gimmicky and chaotic—the essence of Shakespeare's play, not the essence of Shakespeare's play, when order finally establishes itself over disorder.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" may be the most improbable of the Bard's comedies, but it doesn't have to be impossible as well. What we get at the University Theatre, in any case, is not "A Midsummer Night's Dream" but "A Spring Evening's Excesses."
By some odd coincidence, Shakespeare was supposed to have died after a night of excessive drinking in Lawrence in 1618. He would have loved the bars in Lawrence, especially after an evening in the theatre.
Demetrius, Harry Parker, finds himself in a comic moment in KU's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
REMINDER!
Your Lawrence Book coupon expires May 9
Take the Plunge