Shake the seasonal blues with The Vortex Theatre’s twist on a Shakespeare classic

William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is “almost the perfect play,” according to Leslee Richards, who is directing the production at Vortex Theatre. The play opens on Friday, Jan. 9.

“It’s beautiful, it tells us important things in the guise of humor — which is the best way to learn things — and it has so much good nature in it,” Richards said.

One of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed plays, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a reality-bending comedy about four young lovers, two quarreling fairies and a group of amateur actors whose lives become hilariously entangled over the course of a single night in an enchanted forest.

“We’ve got a phenomenal set that Mary Rossman has designed that really takes people into the forest,” Richards said. “My thinking is that the forest is a really important symbol of possibility and transition. … People go into the forest one way, and they come out of the forest different.”

Rossman’s set, full of lush flowers and trees, extends beyond the stage.

“As soon as the audience comes into the theater, they will be in the forest,” Richards said.

The immersive fantasy is enhanced by the fact that Richards chose to stage this summertime reverie in the dead of winter.

“What better time?” she said. “We all need a little warmth in our lives in the doldrums of January after the holidays, don’t we?”

Richards previously directed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the New Mexico Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 2010.

“It was one of the very first productions in the summer Shakespeare Festival, which we started in 2010,” Richards said. “This is a very different production. I think I’m a much better director, I’m much more experimental and energetic and I have a much better understanding of the language.”

There are 18 actors in the cast, and three of them play multiple roles. In some cases, Richards intentionally cast against type.

“We have wonderful actors for the four lovers, (including) people that Albuquerque has seen before but hasn’t seen this way,” she said. “I don’t want to tell all the secrets of the show, but there’s going to be some very surprising casting. This is not a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that anybody has seen before.”

Local composer and songwriter Casey Mráz is coordinating the music, and there will be a lot of delightful movement and dance, as well, according to Richards.

Nick Bottom — the overconfident actor who gets transformed into a donkey — will be played by Ed Chavez.

“Ed is a phenomenal comic actor,” Richards said. “He played Benedict in the New Mexico Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ last summer, and he was in ‘Metamorphosis’ last January, a year ago. … He can do anything.”

In the original play, Titania, the fairy queen, falls in love with a donkey-headed Bottom while under the influence of a love potion. She does not fall in love with him in this version, but another character does. Richards said people will have to come to the show to find out who it is.

The Vortex celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026. Richards, who has been with the theater for 20 years, thought a new take on a classic play would be the perfect way to start the season.

“The Vortex has done a lot of Shakespeare over its 50-year history, and we thought it was a great kickoff project for our 50th anniversary year,” she said.

Richards’ “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is an ambitious production with a much larger cast than most Vortex plays.

“It’s a big project,” Richards said. “And it’s going to be a really exciting, magical, thrilling project for people to come in and be a part of.”

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the Albuquerque Journal. He covers music, visual arts, books and more. You can reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com.