Bless Maltby for resisting any temptation to relocate the action from Thebes to A'ala Park, graft on references to haole missionaries or same-sex marriage, or have the fairies dance the macarena!
John Perry is a marvelous Nick Bottom -- weaver by trade and self-important actor by avocation. Perry negotiates the dialogue with ease and embellishes the role with broad physical technique even when encumbered by the ass-head mask that denotes Bottom's enchantment by the mischievous Puck (Scott Kim).
Patrick Casey, Lauren Fitzhugh, Andrew Kickertz, Garison Ellsworth Piatt and Allen Wright are first-rate as Bottom's fellow amateur thespians. Each has great bits in this broadest of the play's subplots. Their slapstick efforts at a play-within-a-play had the crowd roaring yesterday.
Cheryl Bartlett (Helena) opens as odd woman out in a romantic quadrangle: Helena loves Demetrius (Joseph Matthew Jassenoff) who loves Hermia (Rebecca Graue) who loves Lysander (Gerald Kolbeck) who loves Hermia. When misdirected magic reverses the equation, Helena concludes it's an elaborate practical joke at her expense and responds with the venom of a woman scorned. Bartlett and Graue work a spat between the women into the mother of all cat fights.
Melinda Maltby glows as Tatania, Queen of the Fairies. David Michael McCullough and Carol Winters-Maloney anchor the action with stately presence as the Duke of Athens and his Amazon betrothed. Andrew Chow adds further gravity as all-powerful Oberon, King of the Fairies.
Vanya Kizhov (sets) creates a sufficiently magical forest by swathing the theater with fragrant burlap. Darren Hochstedler (lighting) adds to the enchantment by illuminating the seven-level stage with similar simplicity. More is unnecessary.
What: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," staged by Hawaii Pacific University Theatre
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