PORT TOWNSEND — Tomoki Sage had yet to step into the land of Shakespeare. Rather, he’s an acrobat, a performance artist — an acrobaticalist, truth be told. People know him from Nanda, the martial arts-juggling-comedy troupe born in Port Townsend.
Yet when director Duncan Frost asked him to play Puck, the elf in the bard’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Sage jumped.
This is a character who’s stood the test of time: written 420 years ago, he’s the king’s jester, the minister of love potion, the “merry wanderer.”
But that’s not all. Next, Frost asked him to also serve as the movement coach for the whole show.
Now that sounded “like a great experience,” said Sage, who will leap, along with his fellow sprites, onto the Chetzemoka Park stage tonight. This is Key City Public Theatre’s annual Shakespeare in the Park production, on through Aug. 30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.
While “Midsummer” is one of Shakespeare’s most-performed plays, it’s no simple romp. The tale mixes four young lovers, a flock of fairies and much magic and frolic and, as Frost says, it’s a romantic comedy like the ones we see on the movie screen — only with poetry and sass as only Shakespeare can dish out.
The tale begins with the quartet of lovers running off into the forest, only to be discovered by Oberon, king of the fairies. His imps proceed to play a series of tricks on the lovers, complicating their lives further.
At the same time, a group of amateur actors are rehearsing a play to be performed at the duke’s wedding. They too go into the forest, where the fairies play their tricks once more.
Puck, Oberon’s lieutenant, is supposed to help the lovers by administering a potion. He applies it to the wrong people, though. Somehow this and other confusions must be righted — the stuff of which “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is made.
“The most challenging part for me was the language, for sure,” said Sage.
Elizabethan English just isn’t what he’s used to. Fortunately, Frost keeps reassuring him that he’s going to get it.
“It’s a crazy balance,” Sage said.
“You really want to honor the poetry,” while making sure you’re understood. Fortunately, “I get to do some acrobatics in it. Puck has a lot of room for physical craziness,” added the actor.
“He’s most likely to do a flip” just for the joy of it.
