Theater Reviews : Comic Touches Brighten ‘Midsummer Night’ : Flights of humor, intelligent cutting and visual appeal make Cal State Fullerton’s staging of the Shakespearean fantasy a real pleasure to watch.

There are as many ways to stage Shakespeare as there are directors. His youthful, luminous fantasy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” particularly, is a play that cries out for invention and embellishment.

And invention--from the lucid cutting to the flights of humor to the visual appeal--is what makes Dean Hess’ staging at Cal State Fullerton such a pleasure. “Dream” is a large play, but Hess has fitted it into the small Arena Theatre as though it always belonged there.

This may not be a production for purists, but its sense of humor and its greeting-card brightness provide the text with clear-cut images that stick in the mind. Some of the actors may not always find the rhythms of the poetry, but their comprehension of the emotional and comic possibilities under Hess’ guidance are boundless.

Hess concentrated his cutting almost completely on the giddy young lovers and on the goofy Mechanicals. The fairly brief Athenian scenes are even briefer than usual here--all to the good, since all they do is set up the goings-on in the forest. Rather standard and unexceptional performances by Christian Banks as Theseus, Devon Williams as Hippolyta and Tom Loeprich as Egeus don’t come up to the free-for-all that follows.

The four mix-and-match young lovers don’t contemporize their readings, but their reactions, their timing and their infectious passions find contemporary laughs. Todd Crabtree’s opaque Lysander, Adreanna Rivoli’s marvelously petulant Hermia, Trevor H. Olsen’s blockhead of a Demetrius and Riley H. Risso’s matter-of-fact Helena are energetic, sincere and utterly naive--exactly the teen-age hormone-victims they should be.

Purists certainly would sneer at Hess’ “Rose” Bottom (Amy Schaumburg), “Anna” Quince (Sacha Vaughn), “Letty” Snout (Wendi West) and “Isobel” Snug (Sara Hess), but they would be forgetting that in Shakespeare’s day, peasant women often did the work of men. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Schaumburg’s highly original Bottom is cleverly conceived and pretty hilarious.

*

They’re all funny, as are their underprivileged male cohorts, Kelly Merrell’s complaisant Starveling and Blaine T. Hoffman’s drag-beleaguered Flute.

Raylene Dodson’s Titania hits all the right notes, but she’s no match in this special context for the wood-faun sense of unreality at the core of Jeff Cooper’s Oberon. His characterization is very simple on the surface, but a seemingly intuitive sense of truth-in-fantasy gives it solidity.

*

Carlos M. Moreno’s Puck is a perfect match for this Oberon, urchin and sneak, the ultimate prankster found in all mythology. Moreno’s readings bubble and his eyes dart about looking for mischief, and that is Puck.

Karen Wight’s eclectic costumes look of a period in this staging on Michael Tresaugue’s several levels and inclines (under hanging rags for forest), and the action is evocatively lit by Bradley Enochs.

* “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Arena Theatre, Cal State Fullerton, State College Boulevard at Nutwood Avenue, Fullerton. Tuesday through Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Ends Sunday. $4-$6. (714) 773-3371. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes. Jeff Cooper: Oberon

Raylene Dodson: Titania

Carlos M. Moreno: Robin Goodfellow (Puck)

Todd Crabtree: Lysander

Adreanna Rivoli: Hermia

Trevor H. Olsen: Demetrius

Riley H. Risso: Helena

Amy Schaumburg: Rose Bottom

Sacha Vaughn: Anna Quince

Blaine T. Hoffman: Flute

Kelly Merrell: Starveling

Wendi West: Letty Snout

Sara Hess: Isobel Snug

Devon Williams: Hippolyta

Christian Banks: Theseus

Tom Loeprich: Egeus

A Cal State Fullerton department of theater and dance production of a fantasy by William Shakespeare, directed by Dean Hess. Scenic design: Michael Tresaugue. Lighting design: Bradley Enochs. Costume design: Karen Wight. Makeup/hair design: Lara Hanneman. Sound design: Karl Trydahl. Stage manager: Teresa M. White.