As Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s bewitched suitor, says, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” The same might apply to any production of Shakespeare performed drunk. Here’s the conceit: Every night, one of the actors is selected to take five shots before the curtain raises, and the audience has the ability to up the ante. Expect chaos – which you were going to get even without all the drinking: Shakespeare’s lively comedy is twisty with multiple love matches, a play within the play (about doomed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, aka proto Romeo and Juliet), and faeries up to all kinds of funny business, including transforming one guy’s head into that of an ass. Bottoms up! – Kimberley Jones
