‘Midsummer’ Takes an Elegant Romp

Puck and Bottom define Shakespeare’s romantic fantasy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and in East L.A. Classic Theatre’s interpretation at Cal State L.A.’s Arena Theatre, they’re played by alternating actors. Who knows what slight variations in chemistry will produce?

Yet the overriding tone of Carlos Carrasco’s Aztec staging is bawdy elegance. Combined with Julie Arenal’s choreography and Joe Arreguin’s original music, the effect is playful and spirited.

Puck introduces the various characters in a pantomime synopsis of the play. Melissa Flores is a dancerly, lyrically expressive imp who is not above expressing discontent over the pronouncements and plans of the fairy king Oberon (David Keith Miller). All the bluster and buffoonery is left to Joseph Palmas’ Bottom.

The lovers are lustful; their yearnings are not just pretty poetry, but concrete, physical longings. Sexual connotations fly when Yolanda Androzzo’s Helena begs the indifferent Lysander (Juan Monsalvez) to treat her as his spaniel.

Carrasco certainly deserves credit for successfully defusing any confusion with such an abbreviated cast. With the exception of Puck and roles that are normally played by the same actor (Theseus/Oberon or Hippolyta/Titania), all the actors double up into random pairings: Egeus/Bottom, Hermia/Snout, Demetrius/Quince, Lysander/Flute and Helena/Starveling. Masks (made by Carol de Marti and Consuelo Flores), mannerisms and quick-change costumes (designed by Sherry Thompson) are cleverly used to achieve clear-cut identities.

Finding the theater itself may be a bit confusing, but it’s certainly worth the effort.

* “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Arena Theatre, north end of Cal State L.A. campus (parking off Paseo Rancho Castilla). Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 3. $12. (213) 343-4118. Running time: 2 hours.