By Bart Greenberg***Playing in repertory recently at the Chain Theatre, The Renaissance Now Theatre & Film presented reimagined versions of two of William Shakespeare’s popular works, Hamlet and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. While the budget for these productions was clearly limited in terms of sets and lighting, the uncluttered stage pushed forward the language of the script and the energetic performances of its mostly very young cast. There was a joy in both productions that 
emanated from the actors in their ability to bring these legendary characters alive. From Hamlet and Ophelia to Lysander and Hermia, the cast brought new interpretations to these oft-produced roles. Guided by two inventive directors, there was a great deal to impress even the most jaded theatergoer.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was adapted and directed by Laurie Harrop-Purser. In her conception, the show took place during a ‘60s rock music festival with Titania (Amanda Williams) and Oberon (Rick Macy) as rival record producers, each with their own major star, Hippolyta (Yulissa Torres) and Theseus (Desmond Walker), who are conveniently in love, wooing each other with popular hits of the period.
Also involved are a warm-up act known at The Mechanicals. The hippyish roadie with a constantly present joint fills in for Puck (Ryan Hopkins). Somehow, the young lovers are also connected with this crowd. All of this, and especially the musical performances, went along a bit too long, especially considering the 
limited vocal talents of the company. Once this sequence was out of the way (and curiously the framing device was never really returned to), we were off to the woods for the Shakespearean plot, with the afternoon lifting up.
The young lovers were played by four energetic and original young actors, embracing both the romance of the piece and the physical altercations and comic battles. The two swains (Joshua Johnson and Seven Harrison) were properly handsome and passionate, but topped by the two objects of affection, the unlucky and amusingly confused Helena (Sonja Hugo) and the fiery Hermia (Sydney Olsen). The latter, in a role traditionally played as sweet and meek, here, thanks to Olsen, was a strong young women definitely in charge of her fate, at least until the fairies interfere. Th
e red-headed actress dug into the part with unabashed comic ticks and physically, often seeming to be channeling a young Debra Messing.
Of course, the Mechanicals get entangled with the fae folks as well, led by the boastful Bottom (Austin Zimmerman) in fine egotistical fettle. His fellow workers also double as the magical members of Titania’s court, requiring the group to contrast their adoring courtiers with their somewhat leery amateur theatricals. Josh Munoz especially shined as the reticent Flute, transformed into the tremulous (and charmingly clumsy) Thisbe. Zimmerman carried all of these sequences with a fine comic flair that remained grounded in reality (as real as a man transformed into a donkey can be). This was not the most perfect Dream ever seen, but it was lively and filled with youthful exuberance.
Hamlet, or Hamlet Speaks, as this revision is retitled by director Kathy Curtiss, was the more powerful of the two productions. 
Her intent was to add several monologues for the title character and his Ophelia reflecting a 21st Century viewpoint of the story. This reworking had an emphasis on the politics and the corruption of the tale, where everyone, including the Prince himself, is busy spying on each other and the women are treated as objects more than people of agency.
Further twists found by Curtiss included a pregnant Ophelia, carrying her lover’s baby (once this is established, it is amazing how much language in the original script refers to pregnancy and expectation). Rosencrantz (Hugo) and Guildenstern (Munoz) are posited as a romantic couple who both seem to have had certain frustrated interests in Hamlet in the past, so their jealousy makes them easy prey for Claudius’s machination. And Horatio (Johnson) appears much more often than the original text indicates, making him a 
witness to all the action; he also serves as the one true friend of Hamlet, so much so that the famous “to be or not to be” monologue was here transformed into a philosophical discussion between the two young men.
The two more mature actors of the company, Macy as the menacing and conflicted Claudius, and Joel Applegate, as a less dithering-than-usual Polonius, both brought gravitas to the production. But it was Zimmerman as Hamlet who dazzled, especially considering his considerably different performance as the hapless Bottom of Dream (it is unlikely that even Lord Olivier took on both these roles in a single day). Beyond the thrill of seeing a Prince of Denmark of the appropriate age, the actor caught all the mercurial aspects of the character—from rage to cynicism to love to the pretense of madness to actual madness. Each aspect was evident, plus many more, sometimes several at one time, but all fitting together as in a fine jigsaw puzzle.
Neither production was perfect, with some of the lesser roles being played less effectively. There also were some eccentric music and video choices that proved more distracting than reinforcing of the directors’ viewpoints. But these efforts were impressive indeed and hopefully the company will return next summer for another double feature. And some of the actors seem destined to be seen in other productions in the future.
Photos by Jonathan Slaff
