The cast of Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (2025). Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project
By William Shakespeare 
Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Intimacy direction by Olivia Dumaine
Fight direction by Jesse Hinson
Scenic design by Ben Lieberson 
Costumes by Seth Bodie 
Lighting design by Brian Lilienthal
Sound design by Mackenzie Adamick 

April 11 through May 4, 2025
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts 
321 Arsenal St
Watertown, MA 02472

Review by Kitty Drexel

WATERTOWN, Mass. — Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a delight. I say this as someone who appreciates the plays of Shakespeare well enough but doesn’t prefer them to other theatre. This production is light and frothy fun that took me back to a much simpler time of bucket hats and glow sticks. Such fun is desperately needed now as fascism suffocates democracy like a knee on George Floyd’s neck.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has an excellent summary of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a complicated plot involving four young lovers (Thomika Marie Bridwell, Deb Martin, Michael Broadhurst, De’Lon Grant) who find themselves lost in the Athenian woods on a night when ruling faeries Titania (Eliza Fichter) and her Oberon (Dan Garcia) and their coterie are running amok with jealous games. Meanwhile, a theatre troupe to end all theatre troupes (Kody Grassett, Remani Lizana, Doug Lockwood, Evan Taylor, and Bobbie Steinbach who has never looked so natural in cloggs) is caught in Oberon’s drug-fueled schemes. Only the King and his entourage are spared from Puck’s (Alan Kuang) break dancing mischief. As dawn breaks, all conundrums resolve soundly, and the couples take in a play. Mia Giatrelis plays an ethereal faerie and the dance captain.

Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent and the show’s designers place this Midsummer within the late ‘90s and ‘00s rave culture. Their vision largely works. The scenic design by Ben Lieberson looks like the scaffolding from Paula Abdul’s 1989 seminal pop hit “Cold Hearted” – stripped, raw, and industrial, like an empty warehouse in which the actors rave. Segments of the set glow for Brian Lilienthal’s lighting design in neon pinks and greens like the glow sticks club kids would wave as they liquid danced in their parachute pants. Mackenzie Adamick’s sound design paired Shakespeare’s poetry with pop hits like “Bye Bye Bye” and “Let’s Get It On” for a deep hit of nostalgia. 

Paula Abdul, “Cold Hearted”

The costuming by Seth Bodie pays homage to club culture with its fringe, S&M playtime harnesses, and loud neon patterns. Conversely, the four lovers look like they canvas for George H. W. Bush during the day. Broadhurst, when he isn’t channeling Gandalf (nerd), looks like he moonlights as a USPS postal worker. Taylor makes a striking drag queen.  The Mummenschanz unitards brought the theatre troupe’s opening of Pyramus and Thisbe to a whole new level of dramatic quackery. 

Even in the sections where Parent’s vision doesn’t work – such as when the cast adlibs to the audience and each other or when Parent stages them in the shadows- the cast is so committed to the production that the audience forgives them. We would forgive the cast more readily if actors remembered to please cheat out to the audience so we can see your face and hear your lines better. Deb Martin and Eliza Fichter always find their light. 

It’s clear the cast members trust each other enough to have fun with their roles. Knowing the cast enjoys working together means we get to enjoy their performances even more. There’s no better production than the one in which the cast enjoys the antics of a comedy as much as their characters don’t. 

Shakespeare would be a lot more fun if Alan Kuang breakdanced in his plays. Watching him whirl across the stage like a leaf in the wind was continuously impressive. His dancing would improve any Shakespearean play. A Winter’s Tale? Break dancing to bring Hermione back to life. Othello? Desdemona dances to prove her innocence. It works the other way, too. Olympics 2028? A Shakespearean monologue to win the breakdancing competition. It sure beats whatever Raygun did. 

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