Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Gets a 1970s Makeover at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre

For over 400 years, William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has delighted audiences around the world. In the Citadel Theatre’s latest production, co-creators Daryl Cloran and Kayvon Koshkam give the whimsical classic a 1970s makeover featuring pop music, a garage band, and plenty of glitter. Every detail from Gianna Vacirca's flamboyant choreography to Jareth Li's concert-esque lighting lends itself to the play’s enchanted forest setting, creating nothing short of an escapist experience. 

At the top of the show, we meet Puck (Luc Tellier), an especially mischievous subject of the fairy king, Oberon (Charlie Gallant). In this version, Puck is the spitting image of music legend David Bowie, slinking around the stage in a bright red jumpsuit. On the king’s orders, Puck cheerfully wreaks havoc on four unsuspecting Athenians lost in the woods. The newly engaged Hermia (Alexandra Dawkins) and Lysander (Rochelle Laplante) flee Hermia’s disapproving mother while Hermia’s other suitor, Demetrius (Chirag Naik), chases Hermia. Simultaneously, Demetrius’s spurned admirer, Helena (Christina Nguyen), races after him. Meanwhile, on Puck gleefully enchants Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena. To top off this comedic mayhem, Puck bewitches Oberon’s queen, Titania (Jameela McNeil), into pining for Nick Bottom (John Ullyatt), a weaver and an amateur thespian transformed into a donkey. 

There is never a dull moment in this snazzy, music-filled production. Among the score’s hits are September, Space Oddity, and Celebration. Highlights include McNeil’s showstopping rendition of I Will Survive and Nguyen’s energetic performance of One Way or Another. But it is Ullyatt’s version of Stayin’ Alive that is the show’s most memorable moment. At the March 7 performance, the audience could barely contain its laughter as Ullyatt crawled and somersaulted across the stage and up the centre aisle. It is the climactic moment of the now-human Nick Bottom’s production of Pyramus and Thisbe alongside his ragtag amateur co-stars. 

Edmontonians searching for an unforgettable night of theatre will be swept off their feet by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Like the play’s characters, audiences will experience no shortage of surprises from 1970s pop culture references to impeccably timed song-and-dance numbers. The show runs at the Citadel's Shoctor Theatre until March 23.

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