A Midsummer Night's Dream at Sidney Harman Hall

Washington Post - Highly Recommended

"...As socko finishes go, few comedies can match the one William Shakespeare came up with 400-plus years ago for "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The mirthfully tragic "Pyramus and Thisbe" skit - an Elizabethan foreshadowing of the canon of Mel Brooks - is as close to a guarantee of giddy-ever-after as any bit of amusement a playwright has ever put to paper."

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"... McSweeny demonstrates an easy confidence with the play on many levels, proving himself just as adept with the pageantry of the fairies' court as he is with the (sometimes bawdy and obvious) slapstick during the play-within-a-play."

Washingtonian - Recommended

"... McSweeny also adds freshness to the Titania/Hippolyta and Oberon/Theseus roles, suggesting quite clearly at the end of the show that the characters have been interchangeable all along. Topham is graceful but ballsy as the Queen of the Fairies, and her meek submission to Oberon after an interlude with Bottom seems to echo the “taming” of Amazon goddess Hippolyta by King Theseus. The continually shifting balance of power between the two couples makes them some of the most interesting characters to watch, and Campbell embodies Oberon with a sense of morality, despite all his more questionable actions."

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Escape from your daily grind and let the beautiful poetry of Shakespeare's lyrical tale take you to another realm. That realm belongs to darling mischievous Puck - as you will witness in Shakespeare Theatre Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a story about a love rectangle, with an underdog (Helena), who gets her love ultimately, thanks to the meddling fairies in this Athenian world (clearly an oversimplification - but you get the gist)."

The Georgetowner - Highly Recommended

"...This production, which appears to be set in either somewhere north of the 1930s and south of the 1950s, in England or America or both, but always in Athens and a magical forest, is full of entrances meant to signify. Oberon, the king of the Fairies, makes his first appearance like a rock star in a cape, like Roger Daltrey in front of a white screen. Theseus and his bride-to-be Hyppolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, he in military head of state form, she as formal-dressed stunner, appear before gathered paparazzi, the fairies make their first appearances slowly, preceded by points of light from openings on the stage as if by: magic. Those same openings later become traps to fall in, trampolines to appear flying as if part of an abbreviated tumbling act."

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

Ethan McSweeny’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a feast for the senses. The Shakespeare Theatre Company has turned McSweeny loose to traffic in the magic of the theatre that weaves its potent spell in Sidney Harman Hall. From the opening scene in the court of Athens – circa late 1940s – to the final tableau’s fairy farewell, McSweeny’s production evokes fantasy and wonder.