Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a delightful romp in a forest where sprites dwell and lovers wander; Hold Thy Peace had a wonderful opportunity in performing it, directed by Taylor Shiells '09. Unfortunately, this production of the play was set at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, a period of revolution and modernization in Japan, in a conceit that wasn't so much fresh and interesting as it was clunky and affected, and though the cast was solid, the setting distracted from the actors' better attributes.The costumes and makeup dictated by the period were lovely and often striking, but the contrived, stylized movements of Edo-period theater were ill-chosen and mediocrely executed. The actresses did not have the requisite practice with the kimono to elegantly rise from a kneeling position and consequently stumbled slightly as they stood. And even though the choice to require such motions on the actors may not have been a good one, it should have at least been consistently carried out, as it was almost annoying that elements such as the mincing walk of the upper-class Japanese woman and the bow to one's superior only occurred sporadically. Particularly cumbersome was the scene in which Titania is sung to sleep by her coterie of fairies-while Stephanie Grinley '12 was satisfactory as the fairy queen; sliding one's arms through the air to Shakespearean lullaby set to vaguely Eastern melody does not Japanese dance make. And the choice to have Titania sleep on the stage throughout intermission was positively confounding: many members of the audience could be heard puzzling as the house lights came up whether this was actually intermission and what her inexplicable presence contributed to the experience.

Similarly, the production clearly suffered from lack of a lighting designer. Though at first the lighting came off as pleasantly minimalist-going along with the spare bamboo set-by the second act the slight color shifts that were the only change in lighting were simply overly subtle; with nothing to differentiate forest from palace or night from day, the magic of the midsummer night faded into blandness.

The pairing of Jared Hite '10 and Phoebe Roberts '09 as Oberon and Puck, respectively, proved the most interesting aspect of the play. The two demonstrated their chemistry as Lear and Cordelia/the Fool in HTP's King Lear, and in this reprise, Hite's penchant for royal command and Roberts' predilection for the uncanny wisdom of the underling succeeded once again. Roberts did particularly well, delivering Puck's final missive with originality and an appropriate level of creepiness. Perhaps the acting talents of the pair were heightened by the fact that they, out of the entire cast, dealt the best with the movement style required of them. Nevertheless, the odd choice to have Roberts rapidly crawl offstage awkwardly offset her otherwise sinuous and effective movements.

As far as the play's four lovers go, Stephanie Karol '12 as Helena and Zanna Nevins '12 as Hermia were clear standouts. Their romantic, rather sappy Hermia and more pragmatic, if no less lovelorn Helena mooned and scorned alternately to great effect; the battle of words between the two was one of the most enjoyable moments of the play. Jon Plesser '12 and Walter Simons-Rose '12 as Lysander and Demetrius were unfortunately not as effective, marring the ensemble of the quartet somewhat, but another shining moment occurred in Hermia's coy rebuke of Lysander for his overly physical attentions. Similarly, some of the rude mechanicals played better than others. Here, Jonathan Kindness '09 and Frances Kimpel '10 drew the most giggles with their slapstick and equally goofy wordplay as Bottom and Flute-or, alternately, Pyramus and Thisbe.

All in all, Hold Thy Peace's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream would have been better with for less interference. The Meiji setting was not overwhelming enough to thoroughly throttle Shakespeare's wit and melodrama, but it was present enough to distract from its cast's talent.