Word: hermia
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...makeup don't distance him from humankind nearly so much as his utter indifference to pain and suffering in others. When Oberon orders him to undo the effects of his mistake on the lovers and to anoint Lysander's eyes with the potion that will restore his love for Hermia, he nearly fouls up again and gives Demetrius the charm. He says "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" spitefully, not compassionately, and sounds like he means...
...play. But the young lovers, too, keep their scenes from bogging down into indistinguishable, interchangeable laments: Sloan's strong-willed and-armed Helena gets a hapless Demetrius into a half-nelson, and literally dogs his path with a graphic spaniel imitation; Eric Elice and Marianne Owen as Lysander and Hermia separate "as may well be said becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid" before they fall asleep, roll towards each other and exchange places before waking up. Even Linn-Baker's alien Puck adds comic touches, hopping to his sing-song tetrameter or grimacing with impatience at Oberon's bombast...
...play opens, the Athenian courtiers strut about the stage like so many automatons, suggestive of "a timeless urban environment," as the embarassingly pretentious program notes put it. Hermia and her lover Lysander wish to be married, against the will of Egeus, her father, who wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander decide to leave Athens and be married in the woods outside the city. Helena, a friend of Hermia, learns of her plans and tells Demetrius, knowing he will follow Hermia into the woods where Helena hopes to seduce him. The four flee restrictive-but-orderly Athens...
...workmen rehearsing a play in the woods--are gems of acting and direction. In fact, the acting in this production is without exception good. Dan Breslin gives an outstanding performance as the hyperenergetic, cackling Puck, flawlessly capturing the playful and devilish facets of Puck's mischief. Teresa Barger as Hermia and Joanna Blum as Helena are very much the respectively sought-after and frustrated lovers, and vice-versa. Anne B. Clarke as Titania fairly wafts across the stage. Tim Reuben is an appropriately ponderous Theseus, and Jeffrey Rothstein, struggling valiantly with a wrinkled, Bozo-esque bald-cap, nevertheless succeeds...
...directors clearly stressed diction, for the actors speak with great precision, making this easier to understand than most undergraduate productions of Shakespeare. But Monica Bachner as Hippolyta is too mechanical in her delivery, sacrificing inflection for clarity. Tim Sellars plays Hermia's lover Lysander well, but is handicapped by his boyish cuteness. Sellars looks too much the blonde California surfer. He delivers his lines with feeling, but we can't help thinking that if Hermia threw him over, he'd just as soon hop into his dune buggy and cruise down the beach until he found a new place where...