A Midsummer Night’s Dream is like fairy magic

REVIEW: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Kiyon Gaines and Josh Spell are Bottom and Puck in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo © Angela Sterling.

Pacific Northwest Ballet presents the classic Shakespeare story and portrays this 400-year-old play with all the magic and zeal that you could hope for. Let me quickly break down this famous story for you.

Oberon is “king of the fairies” and not too happy with things in “Fairyland”. Evidently, there is this orphan Indian boy that Oberon wants as his page and Titania the fairy queen will not allow it. So he devises a scheme to change things by using magic love juice, derived from a flower and administered by his obedient servant Puck.

You see, there is this character named “Bottom” who has his head transformed into an ass, thanks to some magic from Puck. Puck is this mischievous elf-like sprite with horns but played beautifully bare-chested by dancer Josh Spell.

Kiyon Gaines is Bottom and Carrie Imler is Titania
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo © Angela Sterling.

Now Titania, Oberon’s estranged fairy queen, falls in love with Bottom despite the fact he is half ass and half human.

Puck must be all looks and no brains because he ends up casting the magic on all the wrong people. Well, as you can only imagine, Oberon’s whole plan goes astray in a comical mess that had to have been a precursor to those zany episodes of I Love Lucy. So he orders Puck to fix it. This ballet even comes complete with the infamous fog in the forest that Puck uses to reverse his mistakes. Thankfully for everyone, Titania is cured of her love for Bottom.

Josh Spell as Puck. Photo © Angela Sterling

I won’t spoil it by divulging the entire ending to you but simply conclude that this is a perfect performance for those that prefer the theater over ballet but also for those that love ballet too.

Don’t let my simple synopsis fool you. This performance is both technically and artistically intricate and most importantly it is very entertaining.

Sadly, the Seattle Times reported that during the opening night performance that I attended, Hippolyta, played Principal dancer Ariana Lallone, suffered a serious calf injury and will not perform for the remainder of the shows. My sincere feelings go out to her.

Louise Nadeau and Olivier Wevers. Photo © Angela Sterling.

Only four performances remain for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Thursday April 10 through Saturday April 12 at 7:30 pm and a 1:00 pm matinee on Sunday April 13. Tickets range from $15 to $150. For more information visit www.pnb.org.