Brad as hippie Lysander

[breakinglight11]

Despite missing Jared, this was a pleasant, low-key weekend. Saturday I went with Bernie to see usernamenumber in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that was a lot of fun. The show was set in the sixties, complete with a conflict by ultra-hippie Lysander (brilliantly and hilariously played by Brad) and the square Demetrius and Egeus, and all the fairy magic seemingly boiled down to the effects of various psychedelic drugs. It actually worked quite well, particularly skewing Lysander that way, and made for a really funny setup with lots of fun performances. Brad was amazing as always, taking on his first Shakespeare role with energy and great physical embodiment of the role. I also was pleasantly surprised to see that the director and the portrayer of Theseus and Oberon was Ron Lacey, the gentleman who played Ferdinand in the production of Love's Labor's Lost I was in last summer, an actor I admire and who apparently is quite clever behind the scenes as well. While occasionally I found the blocking a bit frenetic, making it a bit tough for the dialogue to come through clearly and with nuance, I thought they did a great job transplanting the play into their new context and a great job making a fun show of it. I gather this is a new troupe, and if they continue to put on Shakespeare, I would love to audition for them myself. Brad has kindly agreed to keep me informed, so that could be a fun possible theater opportunity in the coming days.