A dynamic theatre company by the name of "Blessed Unrest" just finished an extended run of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The performances were held at the Interart Theatre at 500 West 52nd St.  just off of 10th Avenue. 

Although the play is set in a mythical Greek era,  the production played to the urban aesthetic of the theatre space.   Demonstrating the relentless universality of the Bard, a number of contemporary pop tunes accompanied the show which was costumed largely in modern dress.    

The play is an interesting parable on the nature of desire and how little conscious choice an individual has in determining the person with whom they will fall in love. The drama follows two sets of couples who escape into woods outside of Athens.   A sly fairy incompetently administers  a love potion to the two male suitors which will make them fall in love with the first object that they see, leading to some strange and unexpected romantic entanglements. Meanwhile, a set of  less than professional actors gather to prepare a play in celebration of the wedding of  Theseus, the Duke of Athens.  After a number of scenes of mad-cap confusion, the relationships of the lovers are happily settled and,  with Theseus' marriage,  three nuptials are celebrated.  

As with Macbeth and Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream blends the realistic with the supernatural. There is a lot of  moon imagery in Midsummer and one senses that Shakespeare has conjured mysterious, archetypal energy in the text  dealing with romance and night. The scenes with Titania and Oberon, the leaders of the fairies,  had a truly mysterious ambiance which was heightened by the lighting designs of  Rachel Gilmore and Benjamin C. Tevelow.  

Because of  the large number of roles in the play, the talented cast of nine each performed two or three different parts. I have seen other productions of  Shakespeare in which doubling of roles is not successful. However, the actors in Blessed Unrest's production ably transformed themselves from part to part. Particular stand outs in the cast were  Carlos Alberto Valencia who transformed himself from a formdable Duke of Athens  to one of the supernatural creatures inhabiting the forest.    Damen Scranton went from the authoritative leader of the fairies (Oberon)  to a hilariously unsure actor rehearsing the drama for the royal weddings. Hannah Wilson also had memorable comic talent.      

The audience that I was with particularly enjoyed  the scenes of the inept  thespians rehearsing the play within a play. Loud laughter from the audience  accompanied the hilarious antics of the out- of- their- depth characters as they attempted to assemble a passable dramatic vehicle. These pages from the script  must have been written out of first hand experience by Shakespeare.  One can only imagine the Bard's reaction  to a rehearsal of one of his own plays and the likelihood that, at times, rehearsals and performances were less than ideal. Contemporary audiences rarely see Shakespeare's works as they were performed in the playwright's time.  Female parts were generally played by boys. There is a funny moment in Midsummer when one of the young thespians says,  "Let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming."

Blessed Unrest's programming is experimental and spans several disciplines. It traveled to Kosovo two years ago to perform  at the Teatri Oda.  The company also has a continuing relationship with the NYU Percussion Ensemble and will perform with that group on May 9.  The dynamism of the company was recognized when it won the 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Play. For more information on the group's upcoming events, check out its website at  www.blessedunrest.org.