Having watched countless performances over the years at the Stratford Festival, Ann Swerdfager can rolodex through actors, directors and shows with the best of live theatre aficionados.
The festival’s publicity director didn’t mince words after watching the opening of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Wednesday night at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
“That was truly one of the most magical shows I have ever seen in my life,” she said.
Director Graham Abbey, well-known for his stage performances in the Festival City, brought a big cast together for a story that flows between multiple sets of characters.
Abbey takes the audience into a fairy world in the deep forest, inside a royal palatial home and into scattered whereabouts of a Victorian working class group with theatrical ambitions.
The production is aided by stunning projection mapping, introducing a believable forest, and at one point bringing waves of water onto the stage.
The light of a moon hung overtop.
Mike Nadajewski, as the mischievous Puck, was the beating heart of the production.
Puck stayed a step ahead of evolving scenarios across environments, frustrating Oberan, performed masterfully by André Sills. It’s a big, big cast. Jessica B. Hill, Vivien Endicott-Douglas, in her Stratford debut, Sara-Jeanne Hosie and Sara Topham were all exceptional.
Abbey said the play ‘revels in disorder, celebrating the fierce beauty of chaos and the promise of new beginnings’.
The play, he says, ‘speaks…to our openness to change and our capacity for love’.
“Graham really outdid himself directing this one,” Swerdfager said. “He got such incredible performances. Such a beautiful shape and context and everything for that show. Wonderful, wonderful performances from everyone.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs until Sept. 26.
News Director Paul Cluff is sharing observations on opening week performances at the Stratford Festival.
