MIDSUMMER DREAMERS to Bring Cosmic Mirth to Shakespeare & Company

Continuing its "Bard out of the Box" programming of Season 2026, Shakespeare & Company will stage Midsummer Dreamers, a new work created and performed by Nick Nudler and Kirsten Peacock of Cosmic Mirth and directed by Maura Hanlon, September 1–3 at the Tina Packer Playhouse.

Nudler and Peacock have devised an original play that blends the poetry of A Midsummer Night's Dream with physical theater, aerial performance, and rambunctious comedy. The duo describes Midsummer Dreamers as “two lovers who fall asleep angry and wake inside a rare vision, challenging them to confront each other and themselves.”

The show appears at Shakespeare & Company as a collaboration with Cosmic Mirth for a limited, three-show run following a successful debut last year at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster, Mass., directed by Hanlon, who also serves as Associate Artistic Director with Cape Rep Theatre. 

“Midsummer Dreamers is an opportunity to try as many outrageous choices as possible,” she said. “There is nothing more exciting than finding artistic collaborators who feed your creativity; when Nick and Kirsten approached us at Cape Rep with their idea of exploring this story in bed, taking us into the private landscape of a relationship, I knew immediately I was in.”

Nudler and Hanlon led costume and sound design, with lighting design by Erika Johnson, choreography by Peacock, original scenic design by Ryan McGettigan, and stage management by Grace Goosman.