Review: Riverdale Shakespeare Players Debut with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Esther Cohen and Sarah Stevenson

Presented by Riverdale Shakespeare Players at University of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale Y, and Christ Church Riverdale

August 27, 28, and 30, 2026

Photo by Alice Dupree.

NYC may seem like it abounds in free Shakespeare in the summer, and to some extent it does—any number of high-quality productions are mounted in parks big and small, parking lots, and otherwise quiet school yards. And yet, this bounty does not always reach the outer boroughs, to say nothing of the outer limits of the outer boroughs. If Riverdale Shakespeare Players’ outstanding and extraordinarily well-attended inaugural production is any indication, the community is hungry for more Shakespeare, for opportunities for actors and audience members alike. 

A new volunteer-run community theater company in the Riverdale neighborhood of the northwest Bronx, the Riverdale Shakespeare Players is a joint collaboration between the University of Mount Saint Vincent, the Riverdale Y, and Christ Church Riverdale, three neighborhood institutions that each hosted one performance of the company’s inaugural production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Esther Cohen and Sarah Stevenson. This joyful production, unfazed even by rain moving them indoors on opening night (the subsequent two performances were held outside, as intended), speaks to the niche that community theater fills; there is something special about watching friends and neighbors mount a production of a timeless classic in familiar spaces made anew by the power of imagination.

 Photo by Alice Dupree.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself is a play that explicitly asks its audience to use their imaginations, to gloss over sticky moments and potential gaps in the plot, to believe in the magic used to resolve the conflicts among its lovers; it asks us to laugh at the bad acting of the mechanicals while also recognizing that theater always asks us to believe the unbelievable (some times more than others). The mechanicals, those tradesmen mounting a comically bad production of Pyramus and Thisbe to entertain the duke Theseus and his bride Hippolyta at their wedding feast, are central to the success of any production of Midsummer, and these mechanicals did not disappoint. Led by Matt Gordon as Nick Bottom, RSP’s mechanicals were the comic heart of the production. As the mechanicals rehearsed, the group solidified into two camps, with Flute as Thisbe (Andrew Small) and Snout as Wall (Jennifer Firestone) hanging on Bottom’s every word while Sarah Greenberg (as Snug) and Steven Peña (as Peter Quince) shake their heads and roll their eyes behind their backs at the ludicrousness of it all. Their production of Pyramus and Thisbe shone, especially the physical comedy of Wall, Starveling’s Moonshine (Robert Ackerson), and the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe.

 Photo by Alice Dupree.

Through their performance choices, the Athenian characters, particularly the four young lovers as their interactions in the woods become increasingly more and more absurd, added to the comic tone set by the mechanicals. Demetrius (Aaron Levav) and Lysander (Michael Kashtelyan) dueling over Helena with artificial flowers plucked from the set reminded that for all the darker undertones in some of the language used about their ever-shifting love objects, we probably shouldn’t take these lovers very seriously. Sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, Hermia (Sadie Isseks) and Helena (Annie Cutler) delivered commanding performances, demonstrating a great deal of range in their roles as the mood vacillated among tragedy, comedy, and romance.

The production was enhanced by the musical accompaniment of Dan Cohen on guitar and a minimalist set of floral garlands, strewn blossoms, and simple stage cubes that were transformed into various aspects of the set. A number of production decisions—Hippolyta overhearing Hermia and Lysander plan to escape into the woods; Hermia’s father Egeus remaining on stage during the final scene even after he is overruled by Theseus; and Titania’s spell-induced decision to give over the Indian Boy to Oberon being framed as one she stands by even while in her right mind (she and Oberon walk hand-in-hand with him as they bless the lovers at the play’s end)—presented unique perspectives on several interpretive cruxes in the play. In sum, this production, hopefully just the first of many, reminds us of why we come back to Shakespeare’s plays again and again, and that each new group to mount a production has something new to show us about the plays we think we know so well.

-Stephanie Pietros