A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

By William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic farce by William Shakespeare. It was suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.  The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.

PLOT 1In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father Egeus's instructions for her to marry his chosen man, Demetrius.  Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to elope by escaping through the forest at night. Hermia informs her friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides to win back his favour by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed doggedly by Helena, chases Hermia. Hermia and Lysander, believing themselves safely out of reach, sleep in the woods.

PLOT 2 Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, were in the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers.

Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience. So he calls for the mischievous Puck  to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called "love-in-idleness", which when applied to a person's sleeping eyelids while sleeping makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing seen upon awakening. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with some vile creature of the forest. Oberon streaks Titania's eyes with the juice while she is sleeping to distract her and force her to give up the page-boy.

Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the elixir on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck accidentally puts the juice on the eyes of Lysander, who then falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. Due to Puck's drastic mistake of putting the juice on Lysander's eyes, both lovers now fight over Helena instead of Hermia.

Helena, however, is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. The four pursue and quarrel with each other most of the night, until they become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to the death to settle the quarrel. Oberon orders Puck to keep the lovers from catching up with one another in the forest and to re-charm Lysander for Hermia.

PLOT 3  Meanwhile, a band of six lower-class labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are described by Puck) have arranged to perform a crude play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding, and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen take one look at him and run screaming in terror. Determined to wait for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She treats him like a nobleman and lavishes him with attention. While in this state of devotion, she encounters Oberon and casually gives him the Indian boy. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass's head from Bottom. The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but is allowed to remain on Demetrius, so that he may reciprocate Helena's love.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius doesn't love Hermia anymore, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man." In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe. It is ridiculous and badly performed but gives everyone pleasure regardless, and afterward everyone retires to bed. Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune.

THE CHARACTERS

·                     The supernatural characters:

o                                            Oberon, King of Fairies

o                                            Titania, Queen of Fairies

o                                            Puck, a.k.a. Hobgoblin or Robin Goodfellow, servant to Oberon

o                                            Titania's fairy servants (her "train"): Peaseblossom, fairy  Cobwweb, fairy,                               

                   Moth, fairy Mustardseed, fairy

·                     The men and women in the play of high social class:

o                                            Lysander, beloved of Hermia

o                                            Hermia, beloved of Lysander

o                                            Helena, in love with Demetrius

o                                            Demetrius, in love with Hermia but then falls in love with Helena later on.

o                                            Egeus, father of Hermia, wants to force Hermia to wed Demetrius

o                                            Theseus, Duke of Athens, good friend of Egeus

o                                            Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and betrothed of Theseus

·                     The lower-class citizens in the play:

o                                            Philostrate, Master of the Revels for Theseus

o                                            The acting troupe (otherwise known as The Mechanicals):

o                                            Peter Quince, carpenter, who leads the troupe

o                                            Nick Bottom, weaver; he plays Pyramus in the troupe's production of "Pyramus  

                   and Thisbe," and gets a donkey head put on him by Puck so that Titania will  

                   magically fall in love with a monster.

o                     Francis Flute, the bellows-mender who plays Thisbe.

o                     Robin Starveling, the tailor who plays Moonshine.

o                     Tom Snout, the tinker who plays the wall.

o                     Snug, the joiner who plays the lion.

Our audition materials are now on-line.  Click here to view.

Auditions for performances and volunteers for tech work are always welcome.  For more information, please contact Jack Peyrouse, Producer

Click here to email the  St. Peter's Players

Click here to see a list of our past productions