Page 118 of Downforce

I’m cut off when the huge, wooden door is thrust open.

“Welcome, welcome, lady and gentleman,” greets a robust man with a thick, long red and grey beard, dressed in an ancient Greek toga, complete with the crown of golden leaves around his head and the flat sandals that lace halfway up his calf.

I’m so thrown off by his abrupt appearance that, at first, I don’t hear him when he tells us we’re in store for wonderful things this evening, as we’ve just turned up in time for dinner at a royal wedding.

I’m confused and ready to ask a million questions, but when Max takes my hand and guides us inside, a part of me relaxes. Although my brain doesn’t switch completely off, I do loosen up enough to take in my surroundings as we enter a semi-dark walkway behind the guy who’s introduced himself as “Leo.”

Along the stone walls there must be hidden speakers because the sounds of animals and birds fill the air while Max and I both duck and weave around tree leaves and branches from the fake forest around us.

“Yes, here we are,” Leo says when we emerge from the tunneled entrance to a wider space for dining. There are five tables set up with some people already seated. At the front of the room is a small wooden fence that separates the stage from the guests.

“Come. Sit, sit. We’re almost ready to begin,” Leo urges.

“What’s going on?” I lean in and whisper to Max once we’re sitting.

He grins in that way that makes my stomach all warm. “You’ll see.” is all he says before Leo returns with menus to select our meals before the play gets started.

I order a chicken dish while Max goes with the fish.

Leo isn’t gone for two seconds before the lights in the dining area dim and the stage lights shine on a pair of actors.

All it takes is the opening lines of the play to begin when it snaps into place what’s happening.

My favorite play.

I peer over at Max, who’s grinning down at me. I press a quick kiss to his lips. “Thank you,” I whisper before turning back to the actors performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In no time I become enraptured with the characters’ portrayal on the stage, so much so that I hardly touch my dinner. Max asks more than once if I’m sure I don’t want more, but I become too enthralled with the production happening in front of us.

The moment our meal is done a new round of Athenian dressed court characters pile into the room, ushering Max, myself, and the rest of the audience into another part of the building where we hear a woman whining about something.

Once in the new room, we’re given the scene of Lysander and Hermia hatching their plan to run away outside of Athens in order to marry. The characters don’t simply act and communicate with one another.

Hermia grabs onto one of the audience members’ hands, an older man, and cries out “Is that fair?” In regards to her forbidden love.

He shakes his head, bewildered to be questioned, which makes us all chuckle.

At the end of the first scene, we’re ushered to a new room where the Athenian court recap and interact with all of us while passing out drinks. The play and interaction and breaking character to make the audience a part of the entertainment go on and on, scene after scene, act after act.

I so become a part of the world that when the four characters at the heart of this incredibly whimsical yet nuanced play about forbidden love and fairytales descend into the forest, it feels as if we’re truly on the adventure with them.

I cling to Max’s arm when the fairies seemingly pop out of nowhere, making me laugh at my fear. Max wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him, protectively. Even though I know there’s nothing to fear here.

Not in this place that’s telling the story of one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. A story I fell in love with as a little girl.

Sometime during Puck dousing a sleeping Lysander’s eyes with his secret love potion, I look up at Max. I’m unsurprised to find him staring down at me. In my periphery, I hear a wandering Helena come upon Lysander at the moment he opens his eyes, drunk off the love potion, thinking he’s staring at the love of his life.

My heart knocks against my ribcage.

My body warms, and that’s when I realize Max has just squeezed my hand. I have a fleeting thought about whether or not our dinner meal was perhaps spiked with the same potion Puck inflicted upon Lysander … because that one word I probably shouldn’t be thinking keeps fluttering through my mind.

Love.

No matter how I try to swat it away, it continues its unflappable battering at the recesses of my mind. Or perhaps that’s my heartbeat. Or both my mind and heart.

It’s on the tip of my tongue. The one thing that saves me from committing the ultimate no-no is the brightening of the lights just enough that we make out Leo coming to give a grandiose lyrical summation of all that we’ve witnessed throughout act two of the play.

We’re given a reprieve from the play for light desserts, drinks, and dancing. Underneath the fairy lights and whimsical music as the cast of fairy characters breeze, hum, and whirl around us, Max takes me into his arms. The smile on his face shoots directly to my heart. It mirrors my expression and makes me believe he delights in seeing me happy.