The Great Night

In writer and pediatrician Chris Adrian's latest book, The Great Night, three lovelorn San Franciscans get lost in Buena Vista Park on their way to a party. Unbeknownst to them, the park is also the secret lair of fairy royalty Titania and Oberon, from A Midsummer Night's Dream. As Titania mourns the loss of her child and husband, the mortal world collides with the immortal and, somehow, Adrian manages this collision with the same ease with which he combines winding, lyric sentences and accessible situational humor. Some of Adrian's best moments come when he situates the action in hospitals, particularly when Titania and Oberon's glamorous antics charm an oncology ward staff even as the couple slips into petty marital arguments familiar to mere mortals. Less dazzling, however, are a pitiful band of musical actors rehearsing a stage version of Soylent Green, who seem to add very little to the tale. All in the all, The Great Night makes a respectful and respectable tribute to Shakespeare's great comedy, honoring the absurdity and mischief of A Midsummer Night's Dream while telling a story firmly grounded in contemporary American culture.