Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Dream, Austin Shakespeare at Zilker Park, April 29 - May 30





This is Shakespeare for a summery night in Zilker Park. The slope above the Hillside Theatre is wide and gentle, the perfect place to sprawl out on a blanket as the stars come out, the players play, the music sounds, and the action flits before you.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a favorite, in part because it is sweet and not particularly demanding. Shakespeare runs masques with the Duke's court, with the fairy court, with the clownish tradesmen and with the ever-so-earnest and therefore inevitably comic young lovers. Add a few portions of fairy juice, feature Puck for mischief, and transform the braggart clown into an ass, and what's not to like?

Ann Ciccolella enlisted Michael McKelvey to do up The Dream with 1960's style music, and that, too, offers an Austiny bit of odd retro flair, kind of like those 1960s rock shows that the Zach keeps putting on, year after year.


Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

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