Fairy Tale Ending

bottom's up: Lenny Haas plays the foolish "mechanical" at Mum.

by Toby Zinman

Shakespeare's familiar and beloved comedy here begins with a dream date: a moon over the Parthenon, champagne, music and a dapper Theseus (Simon Harding) in a tux with his beautiful Amazon Queen bride (Kate Hurster). They are interrupted by an indignant parent whose daughter wants to marry the wrong boy. Hermia (Genevieve Perrier) runs away to the magical forest with her true love, Lysander (Patrick Doran); Demetrius (Bradley Wrenn) follows, since he, too, is mad about the girl. Helena (Adrienne Mackey), who is in love with Demetrius, follows him. Soon there is a forest full of mismatched lovers who fall under a fairy's spell until the couples are, by the end of the night, all paired up happily and properly.

Meanwhile, Oberon, King of the Fairies, enlists Puck's help to put a magic spell on Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and she falls in love with a "rude mechanical," one Bottom, who is changed into an ass complete with donkey's head and ears. They all eventually get sorted out, too, and there is much happy-ever-aftering. It's a play about the transforming power of love and the magic of a summer night. It is also a play full of gorgeous language.

The Mum production, directed by Robert Smythe, is very young, very energetic — the fairies all wear gym gear — and often very funny. The four lovers are played as teenagers — the thugged-out boys are in white hoodies with white sweatpants, while the two girls are in white jeans, sparkle sneakers and their own white hoodies. All four wear masks, so they are almost indistinguishable one from another. At the climax of their mix-up, each of the four has an identical puppet they talk for, so we are looking at, in effect, eight figures, all in white, all trying to sort out their own and the others' emotions.

Puck, usually a male role, is here played by Erin Reilly as an adorable brat, and Bottom is played with equal adorability by Lenny Haas. The play the mechanicals stage for the group wedding at the end takes way too long; there are dances during the show without dialogue that also protract the proceedings, as does Harding's recitation of his lines. The four lovers all manage remarkably well to triumph over their masks and speak their lines with clarity and charm. The little stage, covered with green carpet, has a radical rake, and people disappear behind its upstage edge with remarkable athletic magic.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Through April 30, Mum Puppettheatre, $25, 115 Arch St., 215-925-7686