Review: Smoking Mirror's "Midsummer" Is a Dream of a Production

 A Midsummer Night's Dream

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by John Gordon and Ruby Rich

Presented by Smoking Mirror Theatre Company at A.R.T./New York Theatres

502 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, NYC

August 27-September 13, 2026

Above (L-R): Catherine Desciak (Mustardseed), Roslind Joyce (Peaseblossom), Caroline Feduccia (Cobweb), Samuel Andrews (Mote). Below: Ruby Rich (Titania). Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

At the beginning of act 5 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Duke Theseus asks his master of the revels, “Say what abridgment have you for this evening, / What masque, what music? How shall we beguile / The lazy time if not with some delight?” While Theseus’s consideration of the various forms of entertainment for the evening’s recreation leads to the Athenian tradesmen’s comically terrible production of Pyramus and Thisbe, it also encompasses Smoking Mirror’s production of Midsummer itself, with its talented, versatile cast not only able to seamlessly move amongst different roles but also act, sing, play instruments, and dance. It was, in the words of Theseus, a true delight.

L-R: Anthony Savage Thorn (Egeus), Kaleb Baker (Demetrius), Catherin Desciak (Hippolyta), Isabel Criado (Hermia), Aaron Cirillo (Lysander), James Mackey (Theseus). Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

While Midsummer’s three sets of characters (Athenians, fairies, and mechanicals) initially have separate story lines that eventually converge, Smoking Mirror’s double casting worked to signal to the audience the connections among its characters even further, with James Mackey adding wry humor to both the authoritarian Theseus and king of the fairies Oberon. The cross-casting among the fairies and mechanicals—Catherine Desciak as Hippolyta and Mustardseed, Caroline Feduccia as master of the revels Philostrate, Robin Starveling, and Cobweb, Rosalind Joyce as Tom Snout and Peaseblossom, and Samuel Andrews as Snug and Mote—was especially impressive, for together these actors carried large portions of the play. As fairies, they sang and danced with great skill. As mechanicals, they were hilarious both as their tradesmen and in their roles in Pyramus and Thisbe.

L-R: Caroline Feduccia (Cobweb), Roslind Joyce (Peaseblossom), Abdullah Nasser (Bottom), Ruby Rich (Titania), Samuel Andrews (Mote), Catherin Desciak (Mustardseed). Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

Pyramus and Thisbe is a highlight of any production of Midsummer, and this one did not disappoint. Abdullah Nasser embodied Nick Bottom’s grandiose and self-important over-acting as Pyramus perfectly, and Robert Daniels tricked out in a red yarn wig made Thisbe a kind of life-size Raggedy Ann doll. But the metatheater in this production extended beyond Pyramus and Thisbe, with Oberon and Puck watching the increasingly chaotic situation among the four lovers in the forest from center stage, sitting on a couch, eating popcorn and drinking soda. The lovers were, as with the rest of the cast, excellent, but perhaps especially so the women. Julianne Lorndale as Helena leaned into physical comedy, picking up on the early lines where Helena tells Demetrius to use her as his spaniel and playing the character as dog-like.

THE RUDE MECHANICALS -- (L-R) Caroline Feduccia (Robin Starveling), Rosalind Joyce (Snout ), Samuel Andrews (Snug), Abdullah Nasser (Bottom), Robert Daniels (Flute), Anthony Savage Thorn (Peter Quince). Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

Following the production of Pyramus and Thisbe at the play’s end, the Athenian characters became the performers, dancing for the mechanicals, followed by the faeries and Athenians singing Oberon’s Blessing “Now, until the break of day” together. An appropriate ending indeed for a play that is ultimately about the power of imagination and the artificiality of theatrical performance—or, to quote Martin Challinor’s Puck in the play’s concluding lines, “but a dream.”

-Stephanie Pietros