The course of true love never did run smooth.
So says Lysander, as he laments Duke Theseus' decision to enforce the marriage of Hermia to Demetrius. At least that's the way Shakespeare wrote it. But those of us who grew up with the teenagers of Riverdale, (Archie Andrews and his friends) know that Shakespeare would have understood the characters whose misadventures we all know and love.
Today the senior actors of Bay Theatrix bring the Magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the stage at Dover Bay Secondary School.
During early preparations for the play, the similarity of Shakespeare's characters to the comic book characters became startlingly evident.
Using their knowledge of the inhabitants of Riverdale, the student actors have constructed some pretty recognizable personalities to careen through the chaos of love in an enchanted wood.
For just a little more laughter, the evening opens with a performance of The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Tom Stoppard's reduction of Shakespeare's longest play.
The humour lies not in the lines, which are all the recognizably famous key lines from the original, nor the action, but the fact that the entire play is run in 13 minutes, then again in a two minute encore. A Midsummer's Night Dream and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet run in the Dover Bay Multipurpose room.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the curtain rises at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students, $7 for adults and are available at the Dover Bay Secondary School office and More Than Movies (Dover Road). Tickets will also be available at the door.