From Midsummer Madness to St. John's Day

Tonight's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival* was entertaining, with a strong cast. Especially notable, for me, were Mindy Woodhead, who played Titania with sexual passion, and Dana Whipkey, whose Francis Flute found it within himself to play Thisbe's death scene with high and moving seriousness. The setting of the performance, in the "Meadow" at Baltimore's Evergreen House, was enchanting.

Dramaturg Robyn Quick's program notes mentioned an interesting juxtaposition of dates that I hadn't thought of before. If Midsummer Night was celebrated in England as a time of misrule and madness, it was followed immediately by the Feast of St. John the Baptist, with its theme of repentance. She cites scholar Anca Vlasopolos in noting that

this play ultimately moves from a night of misrule to the light of a holy day in which the characters are brought into harmony with each other and with the rest of society.

This production honored that interpretation by ending the play not just with trickster Puck's epilogue but also with a song by the whole cast--fairies, "mechanicals," and nobles alike--surrounding, and threading through, the outdoor audience, with glowing lanterns.

(*As I've done before in discussing the BSF, I'll disclose that my daughter, Casey, is its development director.)