My wife and I went to McCarter Theater in Princeton the other night and saw their rendition of A MidSummers' Night Dream. McCarter puts on some wonderful shows and their plays are Broadway quality if not always compelling, so we were excited to see what they would do with another Shakespeare play. We saw Hamlet last year - I'll talk about that another time. First of all you need to know that my wife and I have 2 little ones and getting out of the house to see a 7:30 play is not always stressfree. Couple that with the fact that they aren't the best of sleepers and a Shakespeare play and you get the recipe for a snoozefest. Add to that the fact that we always get a drink at the bar right before showtime and we were ready for a restful few hours.
The look on my wife's face when she realized that the play was almost three hours was priceless. Now I'm not a Shakespeare fan and I have not seen this particular play in its traditional trappings, so I can't really expound on the literary correctness or how true this was to the intent or anything like that. I'm just looking for something that I will enjoy and I enjoyed. Groove Lilly - a 3 piece group set the entire production to music. It really kept things moving - even for 3 hours. The stark contrast between the royal palace and the forest where most of the action occurs brings to life the "dream" as it were. With Cirque du Soleil type acrobats and songs to bring the dialogue to life, it was an exciting production.
My wife did get her nap in but woke to enjoy the great closing to the first act and the hilarious play within a play in the second act. The only problem with this play being 3 hours was that after getting out at 10:30 there is nowhere to go eat in Princeton so it's home to relieve the babysitter and forage in the fridge for whatever looks appetizing.
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