This edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream was not chaotic at all, despite the name of presenting company. It was a straight-up, by-the-rules staging of Shakespeare's most popular piece.
That doesn't mean that it was tidy or even, though. Director Michael Floyd and the Chaotic Theatre band had some assorted neat ideas but little vision to tie them together.
Warm-up and intermission music was by the two guitars, drum and woman singer of a combo named 11 Cent Confidence, looking and playing like a standard Austin garage band and camping out solemnly in deep stage right as the play proceeded. They did an interlude or two of music for the faeries.
For some reason, unexplained, the stage was dressed with mounds of garbage left and right.
Some of the company were very good indeed, while others were barely in control of their speech and movement. Andrew Black was particularly accomplished at creating the hammy self-importance of Bottom as weaver, ass and actor. His minimalist framework donkey head dress, a magic piece of costuming, was credited to Cassie Padgett and/or Tara Bland.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
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