Go! review

With its mixture of courtly manners, fairies, love stories and the ever-popular play-within-a-play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is among Shakespeare’s most popular and most-produced works, and the current version at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company demonstrates why that is.

Indeed, if you’ve ever been curious about Shakespeare but intimidated by his reputation or the complexity of the language he used, this would be your chance for an easy introduction.

The characters are so rich and colorful that it’s obvious the cast is having a marvelous time chewing at the scenery.

Although it takes place in the summer, the set is a wintry greeting card because a conflict between the fairy king and queen (Oberon and Titania) has set the natural world into chaos. In order to teach his wife a lesson, the king enlists the aid of Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, played by Kelly Mengelkock, to give the queen a potion to make her fall in love with the first person she sees. Puck takes it a step further by turning the bombastic Nick Bottom, who is rehearsing a play in the woods for an upcoming courtly wedding into an ass so that she will fall in love with him.

Meanwhile, back in the human world, the beautiful Hermia  is being pursued by Demetrius but is in love with Lysander. Her friend Helena (Hayley Clark, who recently turned in a marvelous Juliet and is equally engaging here) is smitten with Demetrius, but the imp Puck and her potions sets about to influence that story with hilarious results.

Director Brian Isaac Phillips enlisted the aid of the Exhale Dance Tribe to play the fairies, which turns out to be a nice touch as they perform transitional pieces to a be-bop soundtrack.

The script also has plenty of opportunities for great physical comedy, both in the Hermia/Demetrius/Lysander/Helena plot line and from the tradesmen who put on the love story of Pyramus and Thisbe with hilarious results.

• WHAT: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
• WHERE: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati
• WHEN: Through Jan. 6
• COST: $26, $22 seniors, $20 students
• MORE INFO: (513) 281-3373; www.cincyshakes.com