Bollywood Meets Shakespeare In Edgerton Park

During a recent rehearsal for this year’s outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Elm Shakespeare Company, rain started falling during the technical run-through. Hermes, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius proclaimed their love (and, at comically timed moments, ire) for each other in the misty drizzle.

“It was actually kind of magical,” said company manager Raissa Karim.

The magic of the great outdoors is something Elm Shakespeare has had 30 years to harness. This year marks three decades of the theater company’s free shows in the park — and with that milestone comes a new take on an old script, revamping the story with a South Asian cultural grounding.

The Elm Shakespeare Company has invited director Deshik Vansadia from The Shakespeare Company India all the way to New Haven to run his Bollywood-inspired version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most of the dialogue remains the same, but the scenes are set in India and there are, of course, multiple Bollywood-style dance breaks.

Elm Shakespeare hosted a preview of the play at Edgerton Park Thursday night. Performances run through Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m. every night except Mondays, at Edgerton Park on Whitney Avenue and Cliff Street. Tickets are free, with a suggested $30 donation.

Before the show began on Thursday’s preview night, the actors donned instruments like a bass and an accordion to warm up the crowd with a few well-loved covers: The Cranberries’ 1993 yodel‑y ​“Dreams,” Hall & Oates’ 1980 pop hit ​“You Make My Dreams,” and Go West’s 1990 ​“King of Wishful Thinking,” to name a few.

Notice a pattern? For those that didn’t (like me, somehow, before writing this), A Midsummer Night’s Dream would soon bring dreams to life anyway, weaving together comedic plots like an amateur play within a play and a group of lovers losing track of who’s in love with who — not helped in the least by mischievous sprite Puck, using forest potions to contort people’s desires: ​“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

Behind my blanket on the Edgerton Park grass, Karim was joined by two friends, chatting excitedly in the lull between the live music set and the start of the show. Her friends made sure to point out Karim’s crucial role in this year’s production. As company manager, Karim was tasked with coordinating the cast, crew, and all the moving parts in between.

“That sounds like the hardest job,” I said.

“Bro! It’s so hard!” Karim replied. ​“I didn’t have a break today.” It sounded like she didn’t get much of a break since the beginning of July, when the show started coming together.

All that hard work was about to pay off with the first night’s performance. ​“Oh my god, I’m so excited!” Karim said. The team will celebrate with an afterparty following the second show, and Karim said they have an Indian dance playlist ready.

The cast had plenty of practice; the remixed play featured Bollywood-style dance numbers where the characters broke interpersonal tensions with well-choreographed moves, surrendering as the music took center stage. More than just a cultural twist, the dances played a dreamlike role in the plot, allowing the perfect excuse for characters to forget their fighting and coordinate with each other once again.

By the time Theseus, played by Nome SiDoné, asked, ​“How come this gentle concord?” between the couples, the answer was clear: through the right amount of Bollywood dance breaks.

Even in their spoken dialogue, actors galloped and ran around the stage, seeming deeply familiar not just with their own bodies but with the exact dimensions of the multi-level platform. They tossed each other in the air, lifted each other up, slid through gaps between legs, and fell dramatically to the floor, all while summoning high emotion for their lines.

Vansadia received compliments and handshakes as audience members packed up their blankets and chairs after the cast’s final bows. He reminded them that the night’s show was just a preview, promising it would get even better as the team gets more shows in.

“As a director,” Vansadia said, ​“the dream is to work hard and finally see the cast and crew get the love” from the audience. The rehearsals were not a walk in the park; actors had to brave mosquitoes and mid-summer temperatures as they practiced their lines.

This would be impressive even for a typical rendition of A Midsummer Nights’ Dream. Now add to that the Bollywood dances.

Vansadia remembered the actors rehearsing some of the dance numbers on sunny afternoons at 2 p.m.: ​“In the heat, that can be soul-crushing,” he said.

“I got lucky with a great set of actors,” Vansadia concluded. The cast, he said, was positive and just very ​“game” for whatever the moment called for. For example, one of the actors threw their back out that morning, and the team was almost going to put the understudy on. But Vansadia was able to reblock their scenes to accomodate for the injury, and the cast folded in the last-minute changes seamlessly.

I caught up with Karim and her friends after the show to see what they thought of the preview night. ​“I really, really liked it,” Catie Pena said. ​“I thought it was so cool. The dancing? Phenomenal. And the costumes were so pretty.”

“It was one of my favorite interpretations of the show,” Erin Hager said.

“The actors give so much — it’s really physical!” Karim said. She praised their ability to ​“mesh the culture” into the script, and ​“it worked so well.” Overall, she said, ​“I’m so proud of them.”