A Long, Loud ‘Dream’ Under the Stars

Every summer should bring at least one “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” under the stars. As part of the first Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival, Santa Susana Repertory Company is doing the “Dream” in a pleasantly verdant bowl in the middle of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

With six cast members on Actors’ Equity contracts and others with impressive credits, this is not community theater. But at least on Sunday evening, as families with young children watched from blankets spread right in front of center stage, it looked like a community event.

You can see it for free from your blanket. Or, for $20, you can reserve a seat in several rows of hard plastic chairs up in front. Most people chose the blanket space over the seating on Sunday. This was just as well for those who did pay for seats--the chairs are on a flat surface, so if they had all been occupied, sight lines would have been obscured for those in back.

Don’t expect subtlety. Perhaps in recognition of the outdoor venue, Lane Davies’ staging is loud and broad. It’s also surprisingly long--on Sunday, it began 20 minutes late and didn’t end until 3 hours and 10 minutes after the announced start time. The last few speeches were especially protracted, with the feeling of several fake endings.

Nonetheless, much of the comedy connected. Mark Blankfield exhales Bottom’s hot air with the requisite self-confidence and funny sideways glances. Charles Hutchins’ Quince is properly disheveled and flustered, Marc Silver’s Flute is quite a sight in drag as Thisbe, and Rosey Brown’s Snout (“the wall”) is amusingly stolid and earnest. Too bad that the “lion” was told to mispronounce his consonants so radically; he’s almost incomprehensible, and the joke soon wears thin.

The lovers go through their gymnastic quarrels with plenty of spirit, with Alexandra Powers’ Hermia spending a lot of time upside down and J.J. Rodgers’ Helena resembling the younger, ditsier Goldie Hawn. In the fairy world, Terry Lester’s Oberon and Ruth Cordell’s Titania speak the verse well, though Titania’s bikini-based outfit, with a peacock train, is more ridiculous than regal.

For that matter, the leading women all wear skimpy styles (by designer George T. Mitchell) that look more appropriate for ice skating than for romping in the woods. And Jeff Asch’s half-dressed Puck surely would be chilled by the night air--if his performance weren’t so manic.

John Garrick’s score sounds melodic, but the electronic instrumentation has a tinny and sometimes intrusive sound. Michael Roehr’s basic green set looks at home in front of a grove of trees, and Gary A. Mintz’s lighting helps us distinguish between the woods and Athens.

* “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Kingsmen Park, California Lutheran University, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Today-Sunday, 7:30 p.m. (Other activities including puppetry, fencing displays, maypole draping and refreshments-selling begin at 5:30 p.m.) Ends Sunday. Free lawn seating; $20 assigned seating. (805) 520-1868. Running time: 3 hours, 10 minutes.