A Midsummer Night's Dream
Guthrie Theatre
Star Tribune- Highly Recommended
"...This is Dowling's last Shakespeare production at the theater he has led for 20 years, and it feels like one of his best. The storytelling is disciplined but he has sacrificed none of the dabbling that he loves to do with Shakespeare. This time it really works."
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Graydin Royce
Twin Cities Daily Planet- Recommended
"...This production is technically quite impressive, and paired with acting to match. David Bolger and Joe Dowling’s co-direction yields a dynamic, flowing evening sprinkled with outbursts of dancing and song. The music and dancing are both stylistically eclectic; the juxtaposition of Shakespearean verses with heavy metal and rap is subjectively genius or jarring. The extensive wirework is seamlessly integrated, and full use is made of the possibilities of the thrust stage. Splash zone (err, on-stage) ticket holders also get a special up-close look at the action. It’s not every trip to see the Bard that a bed descends from the heavens and fairies fly across the stage."
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Basil Considine
Twin Cities Pioneer Press- Somewhat Recommended
"...Clocking in at three hours, everything about this "Midsummer" is big, starting with the largest cowl neck you've ever seen, draped around the lovely shoulders of Hippolyta (Christina Acosta Robinson) as the plays opens, and carried throughout in acting that has been encouraged to go as broad as it can possibly go."
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Chris Hewitt
How Was The Show- Recommended
"...The Guthrie's production of William Shakespeare's delightful A Midsummer Night's Dream clocks in at a bladder busting three plus hours. Loud and long, massive and ambitious, this show entertains - does it ever - but doesn't pull you in. One sits back, marveling at the talent and creativity so richly on display. But one holds at arms length the intertwining stories: the lovers, the fairies, the Duke and his court, the wacko actors (what most productions, this one included, call the "Mechanicals"). This is due, perhaps, to the overwhelming size of the enterprise (the Wurtele is less than intimate and the placing of extra seating upstage exacerbates this). Or maybe this is caused chilly lighting (designed by Frank Butler). The stomping punk/fairies. Whatever the reason, emotional resonance is low."
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John Olive
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