“A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” is one of William Shakespeare’s most notable and widely performed plays. The comedy has a
bevy of subplots within the storyline, and it even connects the fairy world with the earthly realm. This iconic play is being performed at the Parkside Playhouse Theatre, 101 Iowa Ave. as part of the Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s 2023-2024 season. The play debuted Friday, Feb. 2.

Sarah Goss, who is serving as the director of the show, said this is not the first time the VTG has performed a Shakespearean play.

Last season the group decided to bring Shakespeare into their seasonal lineup, she said, and chose to perform “MacBeth.”

“We weren’t sure how it would be received. Shakespeare is always brilliantly written, but usually hard to understand,” Goss said. However, the VTG performance was well-received by audience members.

This year, Goss said, since “Mac- Beth” had been such a “dark story,” she decided to lighten things up with a comedy.

“And ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a hilarious one at that,” she said. “Many people think of Shakespeare and immediately envision an English actor with perfect, precise diction going on and on about how awful everything is. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Bard was hilarious. He had an amazing comedic way of writing and he was also a bit saucy.”

The cast, which consists of 24 members ranging in age from 12 to 63, began rehearsing in November.

“They have all put in so many hours learning their parts,” Goss said. “Shakespeare is hard. You are more or less learning your dialogue in a different language. Then, you have to learn how to enunciate and inflect at the right time to help your audience understand what is going on. Our cast has worked incredibly hard to perfect those skills. Months of rehearsals. Learning their lines — so many lines.”

With a production that has songs, dance numbers and “excellent one-liners and zingers,” Goss said she is confident the audience will enjoy “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.”

“It’s just so funny,” she said.

In addition to Friday night’s opening performance, “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10. Matinee performances will be offered at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11. Tickets are $15, $10 for ages 13-19 and 65 and older, and $8 for ages 12 and younger. Tickets are available at www.showclix.com/ events/10243 or at the door. “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” is part of the VTG membership season.