Shakespeare’s writing is famous for being hard to understand, and it should be, as he lived and wrote during the 1500s. In our school’s rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the acting is as good as ever, but the Shakespearean dialogue holds it back from being a truly enjoyable production for all.

The play is about two lovers, Hermia and Lysander. The problem is, Hermia’s father wants her to marry someone else. They elope into the forest to escape this arranged marriage and, in a radical twist of fate, they find themselves in the land of the fairies.

They are pursued by Hermia’s husband-to-be, Demetrius, who is in turn pursued by Helena, who is in love with him. While this is going on, the fairy queen and king are having an argument over whether or not they should accept the gift of an Indian prince. To make her seem like a fool, the king makes her fall in love with a boy he bewitches to have the head of a donkey.

Eventually, these two plot threads come together through the hands of a whimsical fairy named Puck, whose good-natured attempts at helping the fairy king only end up causing more trouble.

All this gets very confusing, and it only gets worse when you add in the old and nearly intangible English used in the production. If they had tried to edit the language to make it more palatable, this may have been an even better play, but, as it stands, the dialogue makes it too hard to follow.

Puck, the lead, is played by Laura Kelly, who was in both casts, does a fantastic job. Other important roles are played by Brett Young as Lysander, Stewart Wilson as Demetrius, Maddie Horton as Helena, and Marlise Dizon as Hermia in the Summer Cast. The Night cast had Brett Young as Lysander again, Zach Davis as Demetrius, Paige Holloway as Helena, and Drew Allison Millett as Hermia. All of them add their own style and flare to their roles, and the acting is as good as it always is here at Rocklin.

Sadly, the acting talent can’t carry a show that is meant to be a comedy, but can’t be understood. The actors try to remedy this by giving a plot synopsis before the show starts, but it is too short and confusing to fix the problems.

If you know or are close with one of the actors in the play, then the brilliant acting will belittle the challenge of Shakespearean dialogue. But if everyone on stage is a stranger and you don’t understand Shakespeare, then this might not be the show for you.

The show’s run time is a little under two hours and it will be running until Sunday. Shows start at 7 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

*The original version of this story was changed after edits were made.