[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Caitlin Arnd, under the stars to celebrate their 30th season!
Another year, another season of wonderful Kingsmen Shakespeare Company plays outside, under the stars!
This is their 30th year and in celebration of this, they open with the play that started it all for them, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Gosh, what were we all doing 30 years ago?! Dressing in black and carrying Calvin Klein bags? Listening to R&B on repeat? Not texting anyone at all and leaving long messages on answering phone machines after the beep?
It’s hard to imagine how radically our world has changed. But through it all, there is Shakespeare and the Kingsmen standing guard at the gates of culture and classics. Fiercely protecting the hilarious misadventures and heartbreak and lines that jump out of monologues that are so seared into our collective consciousness that they have become the words we use to express ourselves for every conceivable reason.
This gorgeous and brilliantly acted A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in the 1920s, although it hardly matters, as most of this play is set in the forests of the fairy King and Queen and fairies are fairies no matter the year. But it does give an excuse for music and dance and some wonderful hoodlum gangsters to begin the story and liven up the darkening stage as the frogs begin to sing in the nearby creek.
Some say the frogs are a little loud for Shakespeare, but I, for one, adore the sweet throaty songs, and I swear sometimes they follow me home and I dream of them post play. You certainly know you are outside and for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and all its spells and fairy mischief, they are the perfect companions.
What a wonderful cast this year. The gorgeous Tatiana and her Oberon, tall and majestic, ruling the night and the enchanted woods. And a Puck that’s at home in the smoky clubs of the speakeasies, and she is in the company of other fairies.
In the city, the mobster/duke is preparing for his own wedding when a wealthy cohort interrupts, enraged with his daughter Hermia, who is promised to Demetrius, a man she doesn’t love. When she refuses her father, she is given one night to change her mind before being sent to the convent. But Hermia loves Lysander, a poor musician. When she confides in her friend Helena, who is actually in love with Demetrius, she sets in motion the events that lead all four of these star-crossed lovers deep into the woods that night.
A group of actors, busy rehearsing to entertain at the Duke’s wedding, are utterly oblivious to the real drama happening all around them and are deeply focused on their own slightly confusing version of a classical story of love.
As they rehearse in the woods that night, unaware of the danger they are in, their lead actor, Bottom, is enchanted by Oberon and given the head of an ass, while Oberon’s Queen Tatiana has a rare flower’s nectar dripped into her eyes to make her fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes…which is, of course, Bottom.
Meanwhile, the young lovers also suffer from the fairies’ mischief, and Lysander is made to love Helena and Demetrius is also, driving Helena to wish for no love at all and Hermia to be utterly broken hearted.
All this in one night!!! It takes a pretty phenomenal group of actors to make this work. It’s a lot of layered storylines. Although all of them intersect, without really good character actors being furiously involved in their very specific roles, this magical mystery tour could fall apart quite quickly. But not this play, far from it in fact.
Every single actor brings their absolute best work, it feels effortless, and it’s a real joy to watch.
The Kingsmen are notorious for their scholarly and lovingly detailed yet unabashedly passionate approach to their work, and every single play I have seen by them has been truly extraordinary. This, their 30-year anniversary celebration of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is no exception to this rule.
It is funny, beautiful, heartrending, full to the brim with unforgettable characters and absolutely the best night you could gift yourself anywhere in Los Angeles.
Thousand Oaks is a little over 30 minutes from my house, with a following wind, and a pleasure to drive to with its lovely houses and tree-lined streets. The campus of California Lutheran is a respite from the noise of the city. The trees are tall and the moon always shows her face between the stars or the clouds. Bring a sweater, which is a wild thing to tell anyone in L.A. Bring a blanket and some nosh, there is wine and beer and chocolate, etc. available at the store there as well as Kingsmen merch…I got a mug and a blanket!
I cannot recommend A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the wonderful Kingsmen Shakespeare Company enough! Bring your family. I did, and my five-year-old granddaughter loved it! She went last year too!! It’s a wonderful adventure, and it will become a real tradition, like it has for so many over the years!
Tickets:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/35972/production/1268535
Where:
California Lutheran University
60 W Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
When:
June 19-21, 26-28 and July 2,3, 5, 2026
Friday-Sunday, 8:00 p.m. – Park opens at 5:30pm