Boogie Bard

Shakespeare will boogie down “Saturday Night Fever” style in a loose adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which previews Wednesday at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. Blending disco and comedy, the family-geared performance of “A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream” will be presented by the Troubadour Theatre Company.

“We bring our own brand of anarchy and hilarity to [Shakespeare’s] material,” said artistic director Matt Walker, who portrays Puck, the fairy, and Peter Quince, leader of the working men.

The Los Angeles-based company, with 35 members and a four-piece troubadour band, has performed five other fast-paced adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, including “Spamlet” and “12th Dog Night.”

The show is pared to the bare story elements, although some lines are delivered in iambic pentameter. “We put this together to make Shakespeare more accessible to everybody, especially children and families, and to remove the stigma that is attached to Shakespeare,” said executive director Michael Sulprizio.

The production blends slapstick, acrobatics, music and comic improvisation. About one-third of the cast trained at Second City in New York. They also throw in a little fire-eating and stilt walking. Cast members interact with the audience during the show and play “Simon Says” with kids during intermission.

“They are very comfortable in their own skin in front of an audience and able to deal with whatever comes up,” said Walker, a graduate of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College. “So you’ll never see the same show twice.”

Walker received the 1999 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for directing. Others in the company have been trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the American Conservatory Theater and Cirque du Soleil.

Samantha Savoia of Malibu has taken her 6-year-old son, Giacomo, to see the group four years in a row.

“He gets up on the stage with them during intermission,” Savoia said. “We’ve seen every performance that they’ve done. My son talks about them incessantly. They’re funny, not rude or crude.”

Sulprizio, a Valley Glen resident who plays Theseus, the duke, and Oberon, the king of the fairies, said, “We’re not a make-you-feel-stupid kiddie show. And we’re not your typical Shakespeare group. But we’re something in the middle.”

BE THERE

“A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream” previews Wednesday and Thursday at 2 and 7 p.m. and opens Dec. 29 at the Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Through Jan. 28. Tickets are $15 matinees, $20 evenings for adults; all shows $10 for students. For reservations, call (818) 955-8101.