Opinion: A Sizzling 'Night'

As the dog days slouch across the East End and the thermometer hovers in the 90s, the perfect midsummer night's dream might seem to be an air-conditioned flick at your local cinema.

So what if it's "Air Force One" ("a geriatric comic book," according to The New Yorker) or "Contact" ("barely a smile, let alone a good laugh," op. cit.) - at least you'll need a sweater.

But lo: There's a superior option, and one with laughs galore. It's Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," now playing in the cool evening breezes at Montauk County Park, presented by the fledgling but very savvy Hamptons Shakespeare Festival.

New, Improved Set

Nothing geriatric about this production. It sizzles with youthful energy and soars with the kind of inspiration that creates unlikely yet somehow just-right dramatic moments.

Norman Mailer once wrote that the best ideas come unexpectedly from left field, if one is receptive, and this "Dream" abounds with such trophies.

There've been a lot of improvements since last year's maiden production of "Romeo and Juliet," wonderful though it was. The set is now more substantial and functional - a pink ivy-covered structure that doubles as Athens and a wood nearby - while better equipment improves the lighting.

Grass, Stars, Fizz

The seating, fortunately, is still on the grass where it's fun and informal. Just bring your friends and family, a picnic, and a blanket or beach chairs, and loll under the starry sky.

(One romantic couple set up a little table on a lovely Indian rug, and celebrated with crystal champagne flutes and a bottle of bubbly. This seemed just right for the evening, which barrels along with a fizz of its own.)

The characters are familiar. Theseus, Duke of Athens, is to marry Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, whom he has just beaten in battle. Oberon, King of the Fairies, seeks a reconciliation with his Queen Titania after a nasty quarrel, which Puck promises to effect with a magic love potion.

Headlong Comedy

Then there are the crazy, mixed-up romances. Lysander and Demetrius are both in love with Hermia, who has eyes only for Lysander but has been betrothed by her father, Egeus, to Demetrius, for whom Helena has a severe case of the hots.

It's all a mess, but one that's made light of in this headlong comic treatment. The feeling of impending tragedy that often accompanies productions of the play is swept aside without a second thought.

Contributing greatly to the ongoing shenanigans are the antics of what used to be called the rude mechanicals; they have been updated and localized into people we all recognize.

Updated Mechanicals

There's Quince, a carpenter for Shakespeare, here played by the brilliant Connie Rafferty as a lady cop, and Bottom (Remy Auberjonois, who also plays Pyramus in the interlude), now some sort of laborer.

Snug the joiner (Desmond Reilly, Lion in the interlude) becomes a hard hat on a road crew along with Flute (Paolo Pagliacolo, Thisbe in the interlude). Perhaps funniest of all are Kevin Chalmers as Robin Starveling, the moon in the interlude, and David Paluck, our last year's Romeo, as a very puckish Puck.

Also notable among the talented cast are Claudia Besso as Titania/ Hippolita - she played the nurse last year - and Heidi Yudis, who is a fine, unfettered Helena.

Riveting Oberon

Richard B. Watson wins the Tony hands down, however. His business-suited Theseus is dashing, but it is as Oberon that he gives a truly riveting performance. Limping around in a wolf skin and mask, baying at the moon, he reminds us that animal spirits may be our real selves, barely concealed beneath our human forms.

Josh Gladstone's athletic direction makes full use of the set and the surrounding hills, with actors bicycling across the stage and lovers streaking along the horizon in hot pursuit of one another; Puck actually seems to "put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes."

What with Jeanne Hime's energetic choreography and David M. Brandenburg's occasionally distracting original music, however, some of the actors' lines get lost in the excitement.

That, and a wish that the show had started at 6 as it did last year, instead of at 7, are only minor complaints about an otherwise smashing evening.

The show continues through Aug. 31.