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align=center><FONT face=Georgia><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>Great
Lakes offers modern, amusing but muddled ‘Midsummer’</SPAN></B><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
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face=Georgia>Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">According
to Puck, <SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">“A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s”
most </SPAN>impish of fairies, “</SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>If
we shadows have offended/Think but this and all is mended/That you have but
slumber'd here/While these visions did appear.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Past
productions of this play by Great Lakes Theater – and there have been six
others, mostly when the company went by the title Great Lakes Shakespeare
Festival – tend to take </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Puck at his word for they are
truly <SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">hypnagogic affairs.
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">For
its<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> 2003 and 2010 productions, for
instance, the play </SPAN>was </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>transported
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">from the
</SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>1590s
to the hallucinogenic 1960s, complete with surreal landscapes, period costuming,
a Volkswagen Beetle on stage and the interweaving of Beatle’s music to
facilitate the storytelling.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia>Its current incarnation, under Joseph Hanreddy’s artistic vision
and direction, is similarly surreal but it places the story and all its lyrical
Shakespeare-speak in modern times.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Not everything works in this production.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">But Puck’s play-ending
apology accounts for most of these occurrences.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And his earlier observation – “What
fools these mortals be” – seems to cover for the rest.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
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more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><I
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color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></I><I
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