THEATER REVIEW

Tom Titus

When the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse learned that the performance

rights to its scheduled season opener, “Steel Magnolias,” would not be

available for a September production, September had already arrived. And

even postponing the opening a week would leave a scant three weeks for

rehearsal.

Never fear. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way.

The playhouse called on Shakespeare himself to save the day -- the

Bard and a company of young, energetic performers from Long Beach that

bills itself as Six Chairs and a Couple of Artists. The result is an

all-stops-out, freewheeling and farcical presentation of “A Midsummer

Night’s Dream.”

Co-directors Jack Millis and Kristina Leach -- who also plays the dual

roles of Hippolita and Titania -- have recruited members of the dynamic

Six Chairs company and given them free rein to conjure up their own brand

of creative, often below-the-belt craziness. Shakespeare would be hard

pressed to recognize this “Dream” as it zaps back and forth at a dizzying

pace.

While the entire company turns in a wildly inspired production, three

actors in particular stand out -- Shannon Mahoney as an acrobatic Puck,

Christine Cummings as an angular, rubber-faced Helena and Michael Serna

as a bombastic Bottom, the character who literally makes an ass of

himself.

Mahoney controls the show like a manic puppeteer as she first passes

out figments of costumes and props for this modern-dress production, then

soars through the show with flips, cartwheels and splits to prove “what

fools these mortals be.” Her energy level, like that of the entire

company, is simply incredible.

Cummings recalls a young Carol Burnett cavorting in “Once Upon a

Mattress” as she employs her statuesque height and rail-thin form to

ultimate comic effect. Whether pursuing her beloved or being pursued by

him and his rival, Cummings is a supreme show stealer.

As Bottom, the hammish weaver who turns overacting into an art form,

Serna delivers a powerful comic performance. With only a fragmentary

fitting of donkey ears, he brays his way into the spotlight wonderfully

and anchors the egregiously overdone playlet that concludes the show.

Leach teams with Justin Walvoord’s booming Oberon to strike

inflammatory sparks in the woodsy fairyland. Her doting affection for the

ass-headed Bottom and his masterful scheming to alter mortals’

personalities are both highly entertaining.

The rivals for first Hermia, then Helena, are interpreted with

pugnacious gusto by Russ Marchand and Kirk Blackinton, while Juliette

Finch grows beautifully in the role of Hermia, and her stature -- more

than a head shorter than Cummings -- adds a level of physical comedy.

Peter Hilton as the instigator of the mechanicals’ tragedy is decked

out like the caricatures of silent movie directors and heads a hilarious

bunch of dweebs punctuated by the outlandish, near-wordless performance

of Chad Olson, a lamb of a fellow attempting to approximate a lion.

Jermain Sherman’s all-purpose setting serves beautifully as both

Athenian court and enchanted forest, aided by Kimberly Mitchell’s

lighting effects.

Millis and Leach have dragged Shakespeare’s greatest comedy into the

21st century kicking and screaming, and the result is one of the funniest

productions of the community theater season.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Thursdays and Saturdays.

FYI

WHAT: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

WHERE: Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 21

COST: $15

TICKETS: (949) 650-5269