Review: Students deliver a shining ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 23, 2022

A young couple, fleeing the tyrannical demands of adults to break up, escape to the woods.

They are followed by their friends, who are mired in their own romantic dramas. Together, they spend an enchanted night together, experiencing the spirit of the forest itself and the power it has to change them.

If that sounds like something that could actually happen to teenagers on Vashon, or even like a distant, ethereal memory of something that happened to you 20 or 40 or 50 years ago, you owe it to yourself to attend Vashon High School’s (VHS) production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which will have its final two performances on Friday and Saturday.

It would have been a joy to see almost any show at VHS these days, after the much too long pandemic pause of the school’s theater program. But the fact that our island’s high school thespians are now not only merely performing, but actually crushing one of Shakespeare’s most intricate, lyrical and funny plays — that’s something that seems, aptly, exactly like a dream come true.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was an ambitious choice by new theater teacher Andy James, as the play requires a broad skill set in terms of its language, plot, comedy and stagecraft. But on all counts, the students involved in the show deliver, because the most important goal of all — establishing a cohesive ensemble of actors and backstage contributors — has clearly been embraced by everyone participating in the production.

The program names several leading lights of Vashon’s vibrant theater community, who served as dialogue directors, comedy and movement coaches, and in other roles during the seven-week rehearsal process for the show. The cast and the crew must have been sponges, soaking up the encouragement and expertise of those mentors.

But the students have also remarkably added their own indelible stamp to the production, and of course, there are some standout performances.

Nathan Campbell, a Vashon theater veteran, is simultaneously slinky and sonorous as the forest’s fairy king, Oberon, while Katherine Kirschner frankly astounds in what is her first-ever theatrical performance, delivering up a full measure of stage presence, crisp diction and comedic chops, as Titania, Oberon’s queen.

Ari Officer, playing Robin Goodfellow (Puck) claims the challenging role as his own, giving the character a mellifluous grace and gravitas I had never seen before in the character. He is supported in his role by a sidekick, Fairy, played by Ian Ingalls, who also commands the stage.

Actors in the demanding roles of the young lovers — Richard Barrett-Wood, Chloe Bay, Phoebe Ray and Henry Sutherland — work together in tight harmony, nailing both the physical comedy and pathos of their parts.

Isaac Huff and Gordon Grunwald, inhabiting their characters of Bottom and Peter Quince, also deliver especially hilariously high-octane performances.

Still, it seems unfair and even beside the point to single out cast members, because all of the students in the show seemed to me to be deeply at home on the stage and, in fact, born to be there together, at this exact moment in time. It was beautiful to see their bond of trust and enjoyment in each other as they all came together to deliver the play’s intricate dance of plot and character.

It also must be mentioned that students have touched and helped build everything connected to this show: its inventive sets and props, dappled lighting and imaginative costumes. Backstage is also a challenging and deeply fulfilling place to be in the collaborative art of theater, and these students, too, have excelled in making “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” rock.

Remarkably, even the evocative and accomplished original instrumental music that accompanies the action of the play was composed and played by its student-creators, Zander Knodt, Aidan Clarke and Simon Grant.

So don’t miss the show — it is your chance to sit in the dark and fall under the ancient spell of a 400-year-old play, brought to life by young community members who are still dreaming their futures.

And that’s a pretty magical juxtaposition.

The final performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will take place at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students/seniors. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online, by following the directions located on vashonsd.org/vhs. Masks are required for audience members.