A chaotic comedy adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream where one actor is verifiably drunk each night, with audience interaction encouraged.
The VORTEX is running Shakespeare But One Of Us Is Drunk: A Midsummer Night's Dream from August 13 to 22, a two-week run at 2307 Manor Rd. in Austin East. The premise is pretty straightforward: six Austin actors rehearse a straight production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for six months, then every night, one of them goes on stage verifiably sloshed. That actor, the Drunk, never remembers the performance. Who takes the shots is chosen at random backstage, so you never know which role is going to be the one falling apart.
From there, the audience can push the chaos further. You can get the Drunk even drunker, bribe the Emcee, or even ascend the throne. Because the Drunk changes every night and the room reacts differently, no two shows ever turn out the same. It's billed as a comedy and a shared drink, and it leans into the parts of the play that already feel a bit out of control: the tangled love matches, the play-within-a-play about the doomed Pyramus and Thisbe, and the fairies who turn a character's head into that of an ass.
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It's a short run—August 13 through 22 only—so if you want to see it, you'll have to pick your nights early. The show is recommended for audiences 18 and up.
