Midsummer Night's Dream in Walnut Creek

CenterRep launches new production of Shakespeare classic

A romantic Shakespearean frolic comes to Walnut Creek as Center Repertory Company re-invents A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Greek noblewoman named Hermia runs off into the woods to escape marriage to a man she doesn’t love. She is accompanied by her true love, Lysander. Others follow in pursuit, included her jilted fiancé, Demetrius, and the woman, Helena, the woman who loves Demetrius. Yes, everyone at the center of this classic romantic comedy is stuck in a muddle of misplaced desires, meddling parents, and rigid social conventions.

But there’s a good chance that everyone’s love connections will get sorted out over the course of a long, magical night and with the help of some fairies named Oberon, Titania, and Puck.

Walnut Creek’s Center Repertory Company presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream through April 26 at the Lesher Center for the Arts. You can expect a wildly fantastical and entertaining ride with a production directed by Michael Butler, the company’s artistic director. He specializes in reviving and reinventing classic plays in ways that dazzle with speed, surprising staging, and imaginative costumes and sets.

Butler calls A Midsummer Night’s Dream a “a real playground for creativity.” And he says he loves “the idea that people leave the confines of social structures, go off into the woods, and go berserk with mixed-up lovers chasing one another with passions unleashed.”

Tickets: $29–$39
When: Through Saturday, April 26
Where:
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive,
Walnut Creek,
For information:
(925) 943-7469
www.lesherartscenter.org and www.diabloballet.org

Posted at 03:23 PM in Best Of Editor Picks | Permalink