4 out of 5 stars Time Out says 4 out of 5 stars Emma Rice makes a brilliant start to her reign at the Globe with this riotously irreverent 'Dream' ‘Did Emma Rice send you?’ spits Lucy Thackeray’s Tina Quince as Margaret Ann Bain’s Philostrate tries to confiscate her tambourine. ‘I’ll have you know this was given to me by Mark Rylance’. For all the blithe interviews in which new Globe boss Rice – the theatre’s third leader after Rylance and Dominic Dromgoole – has said how little she knows about Shakespeare, let’s make one thing clear: she knows exactly what she’s doing. And her first production for the Bankside institution is an absolute blinder. Though not as out-there as the ‘Cymbeline’ she did with her erstwhile company Kneehigh a decade ago, it’s more revolutionary, gleefuly pointedly hauling the Globe into a new epoch. Rice’s ‘Dream’ is a wild, bright, polysexual romp in which the theatre’s longstanding fidelity to the Elizabethan period is merrily chucked out of the window.

Almost everyone is in modern dress, there’s a Bollywood-style sitar soundtrack, the lighting rig and sound system have been souped up, a vivid, tactile set from Börkur Jónsson is based on giant wobbling balloons, and Shakespeare’s script does not survive unscathed. Still, Rice’s ebullient innovations never feel out of step with the spirit of the play – it doesn’t feel like one of those pointedly ‘adult’ ‘Dreams’, just a production in touch with the play’s anarchic id. The most notable innovation is Helena becoming Helenus (a sassy Ankur Bahl), a move that rather spices up the lovers storyline, with Lysander and Demetrius now flip-flopping between straight and queer on their one wild night in, er, Hoxton (no Athenian woods here). Beyond Helenus, the most ostentatious innovation is to turn am-dram-obsessed bumpkins The Mechanicals into a group of dotty Globe stewards, led by Thackeray’s Quince and Ewan Wardrop’s hilariously Alan Partridge-like Bottom.

Elsewhere Zubin Varla’s fairy king Oberon is a magnificent letch in period garb, swigging from a two-litre bottle of Strongbow; cabaret star Meow Meow is a hoot as both a rather undignified Titania and a gangster’s moll Hippolyta; and Katy Owen’s marvellous, audience-baiting Puck is an absolute loon – screeching and cackling and force-feeding bananas to audience members (‘What is wrong with you?’ snaps Varla’s Oberon, not unreasonably). Sure, it’s a bit panto. Purists will freak out. And there may be those who feel worried that it has fundamentally changed what the Globe is about, in terms of it no longer existing to offer a quasi-authentic ‘Shakesperian’ experience. But the bottom line is it’s a bloody joy: ravishing, engrossing and laugh-out-loud funny. Rice has reinvigorated the Globe, but the Globe has reinvigorated her – Kneehigh’s productions have become somewhat repetitive in recent years, but this doesn’t feel like a Kneehigh production.

It feels like Shakespeare, taken to his gloriously anarchic max. By: Andrzej Lukowski 4 out of 5 stars Average User Rating a midsummers night's dream coursework - A-Level English - Marked by Teachers.com a midsummers night's dream coursework Extracts from this document... Introduction A Midsummer Night's Dream - Coursework 'Explore Shakespeare's presentation of the wood and its inhabitants' As the vast majority of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare is set within a wood, near the city of Athens, it is important to step back and thoroughly examine Shakespeare's presentation of the wood, as well as its inhabitants. Shakespeare presents the main inhabitants of the wood as fairies. There are many fairy characters in the play, but the main fairies are Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, the fairy queen. Puck, a somewhat secondary fairy character, is a servant of Oberon's. Shakespeare presents them in individual ways, but still manages to enscapulate the ways in which they contrast to the mortals in the play. Shakespeare presents the setting of the wood in a way that makes it seem as if it is a different world altogether from the city.

He makes exceptionally good use of imagery during acts 2, 3, and 4, which helps to present the surreal environment of the wood further. Shakespeare also uses clever language techniques to help show how the mortals are affected by this new environment, as well as revealing the sta0rk contrast between the wood and Athens. Oberon can be seen as the main fairy character. He is the fairy king, and seems to wield a lot of power. Shakespeare's initial presentation of Oberon is of a character who is angry and jealous. ...read more. Middle The fairy queen, Titania, is presented by Shakespeare as very proud. She holds her ground against Oberon, and seems like the more balanced of the pair. For example, before Shakespeare has her bewitched, he gives her lines such as: "But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport", civilised, challenging lines - as opposed to Oberon's selfish and arrogant lines, emphasized by the use of imperatives and monosyllables, such as "Give me that boy".

In Titania's long speech, she makes a point about the disorder in the world, using lines such as "Therefore the winds ...", containing sibilance,which gives a softness to the line; as Titania is describing nature, it helps the audience understand further the beauty of nature, and even the natural surroundings. She begins her speech with an attack on Oberon - "These are the forgeries of jealousy". In the following speech, Shakespeare also uses plenty of imagery, and the imagery used helps to show the dramatic impact of Titania's mood. A good example of this imagery is her description of the frost which "falls in the fresh lap of the crimson rose". By using this natural imagery, Shakespeare is presenting to the audience Titania's angry mood. Shakespeare cleverly presents her anger by using the word "crimson", a colour closely related to red, which is the colour that many people associate with anger. Puck, Oberon's servant, is presented by Shakespeare in a different way to both Oberon and Titania. He is very mischeivous and also somewhat annoying. ...read more. Conclusion Another thing to note about this line is Shakespeare's use of sibilance - "sweet summer".

This, along with the quaint imagery, 'softens' the line, and here Shakespeare is revealing that the wood is a beautiful environment. Shakespeare also uses imagery in an effective way to present the setting of the wood. He uses this imagery further to present the abject strangeness and confusion of the wood, whilst still retaining its magical air, and even giving a slightly exciting aspect to it. This presentation is especially noticeable during act 3 scene 1, where lovestruck Titania says to Bottom: "What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?" This natural imagery is a good example of Shakespeare using imagery to present the setting of the wood because Shakespeare has Titania talk about her "flowery bed". The effect of this is that it enables the audience to see the magic, confusion and even a sensual aspect of the wood, which was Shakespeare's intended idea. In conclusion, it is clear that Shakespeare presents the wood in numerous different ways, with one of the main things to note being the stark contrasts between the wood and the city: the city is hectic, uptight , and overrestraining, whereas the wood is exotic, carefree, and easygoing, but in Act 5, the return to the city feels like a relief.

Shakespeare presents the wood as magical and sensual, as was revealed in the Titania - Bottom episode of the play. It is also frightening, as is shown in Hermia's nightmare, but also seems exciting. Alex Lyons 12SFBU 1 23/01/08 ...read more. The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Language: Context, Genre & Frameworks section. Found what you're looking for? Start learning 29% faster today 150,000+ documents available ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in Different Looks and Cities - The New York Times The New York Times Theater |What Creators These Mortals Be Search Continue reading the main story Photo A scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Old Globe Theater with, from left, Charles Janasz, John Lavelle, Donald Carrier, Sean-Michael Wilkinson, Triney Sandoval and Miles Anderson. Credit Jim Cox Chances are you’ve either seen it or have been in it. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is sort of like the Shakespearean “ Godspell ” in that sense.

And not unsurprisingly, the summer is a particularly vibrant time for productions of the comedy, which works well in an outdoor setting — what with those enchanted fairy-filled woods outside Athens, where lovers’ woes are mystically resolved. “There is no question there is something deeply magical about sitting in a theater as the sun is setting, and the play is changing with that sunset,” said Charles Fee, whose production of the play will open this summer at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in Nevada. “Midsummer” lends itself to nontraditional treatments, and the art of directorial tinkering is probably almost as old as the script. The Royal Shakespeare Company and Google Creative Lab are teaming up on a part-live, part-Internet production — the epitome of updates — that is but only one of many intriguing interpretations this summer. Here several of those overseeing these productions talk about their renditions of “Midsummer,” describing how they have conceptualized their productions; what take they’ve chosen for the fairy Puck, that “merry wanderer of the night”; and just what about “Dream"continues to draw our attention. Photo Lawrence Hecht, left, and Steven Cole Hughes in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Credit Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado Colorado Shakespeare Festival Continue reading the main story Directed by Geoffrey Kent CONCEPT Set in the Jazz Age, this outdoor production will have a “Downton Abbey” feel. Mr. Kent said this choice makes thematic sense since the 1920s were the era of women’s suffrage, and the play partly deals with a young woman wanting to marry the man of her own choosing, not of her father’s. Advertisement Continue reading the main story PUCK The veteran character actor Lawrence Hecht is an unusual choice for the impish sprite. “He’s a laborious, slow-moving Puck, who’s got a bad back and bad knees and a bad neck,” Mr. Kent said. “He’s a like an aging Teamster fairy who cannot be fired but works at his own pace.” Mr. Kent has cast Hermia against type too: Jenna Bainbridge is partly paralyzed from the waist down and walks with a decided limp. Photo Credit Royal Shakespeare Company POPULARITY “The other comedies are laced with history jokes and jokes on the reign of the current queen,” Mr. Kent said. " ‘Midsummer’ doesn’t have any of that.

You don’t need footnotes to understand why it’s so funny.” Royal Shakespeare Company and Google Creative Lab Friday Through June 23 Online at Google+ Directed by Gregory Doran CONCEPT This online version of “ Midsummer ” will unfold in real time across the weekend. Participants — audience members sounds too passive — can interact with characters (like “Billy Shakespeare,” above left, with “Francis Bacon”) on Google+; create ancillary characters; share thoughts on the play; and engage with the production in other ways. But fear not, traditionalists; “the heart of the play is still the play, and it was important to us to preserve that,” said Geraldine Collinge, director of events and exhibitions for the RSC. PUCK “He’s the only character that we’re allowing to play across the Internet,” as well as be shown in the more traditional live portion of the production, said Tom Uglow, director of Google Creative Lab (during an interview on Google Hangouts, appropriately enough). Participants will be able to interact with Puck’s online presence.

Photo David Ricardo Pearce as Oberon in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Credit Simon Annand POPULARITY The play’s still the thing, though given that this is a Royal Shakespeare Company production at heart, the text is still important. “It’s got a mixture of comedy and seriousness, and it does address our times,” Ms. Collinge said. Besides, “In how many plays do people get turned into donkeys?” International Festival of Arts & Ideas Through June 23 University THeater, 222 York Street, New Haven; artidea.org Advertisement Continue reading the main story Directed by Tom Morris CONCEPT This production comes to the United States from Bristol Old Vic in England, in association with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, the same team behind the 2011 Tony Award-winning “ War Horse .” Inspired by the setting of Athens, the world’s first democracy, Mr. Morris has set this “Midsummer” in a chaotic, futuristic world, he said, where “there is an impulse through the course of the play toward civilization.” PUCK Naturally the show features puppets, and Puck is made of wood and metal.

“In some ways he’s a Bunraku-style puppet operated by three puppeteers,” Mr. Morris said. Unlike a sprite portrayed by a human actor, this Puck can fly and fall to pieces, Mr. Morris said, adding, “He doesn’t quite have people waiting for him at the stage door, but he’s the character people are talking about after the play.” Photo A scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival with, from left, Apolonia Davalos, Nathaniel McIntyre and Andrew Gumm. Credit Jeff Frazier POPULARITY “A lot of our lives are based on a theory that when we go to bed on, say, a Wednesday, we wake up on a Thursday, and we are the same person,” Mr. Morris said. “But we know that really we might go to bed on Wednesday in love with one person and wake up Thursday either not in love or in love with someone else.

We all recognize that experience.” The play is a “beautiful, wise, crazy articulation of that conundrum.” Nashville Shakespeare Festival Centennial Park Bandshell; nashvilleshakes.org Directed by Denice Hicks CONCEPT Set in Nashville now, this green production features costumes made from recycled materials. The concept is partly inspired by references in Act II, Scene 1 , during an argument between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, that today sounds an awful lot like allusions to global warming. As Titania says: The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world, By their increase, now knows not which is which. PUCK He will have horns, but he will also wear a hoodie. “There’s a real negative movement against hipsters lately, and I’m kind of interested in that,” Ms. Hicks said. “What’s wrong with hipsters? They keep our coffee shops running.” Photo Krystel Lucas, foreground, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Old Globe.

Credit Jim Cox POPULARITY The ferocity of the lovers’ battles still resonates today, and “the humor of the amateur actors as they try to put their play together is still really, really fresh,” Ms. Hicks said. “There’s great advice for life and art within this play.” The Old Globe Lowell Davies Festival Theater, Balboa Park, San Diego; theoldglobe.org Directed by Ian Talbot Continue reading the main story CONCEPT “Midsummer” opens with a father angry enough to sentence his daughter to death if she refuses to marry the man of his wishes. “I’ve set it in the Victorian era because that’s an era when female emancipation hadn’t happened,” Mr. Talbot said. “I think it was a sexist world.” PUCK While the fairy world in the production is dark — like that of the Lost Boys in “Peter Pan” — Puck is still playful and “brings Oberon out of his dark moments,” Mr. Talbot said. “I equate Puck’s relationship with Oberon to the fool in ‘Lear.’ ” Photo Annie Considine in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Shakespeare & Company.

Credit Chad Champoux POPULARITY The romance is timeless: “When you get to a certain age, you think back to youthful love, that thrill of the initial feeling of being committed to someone,” he said. “The wallowing about emotion and true love is something that we all enjoy.” Shakespeare & Company The Dell at the Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, Mass.; shakespeare.org Directed by Jonathan Croy CONCEPT Seven young actors who have been through the theater’s training programs play all the parts in this 90-minute version. The setting is “sort of this side of Napoleonic,” Mr. Croy said. “These are people who could have sprung full-blown from a Jane Austen novel in the way that they express themselves, in the way they seem to feel things, in the way the poetry becomes a metaphor for the size of their feelings.” PUCK A woman (Annie Considine) plays the role, and four others, in the production. One of the interesting benefits, Mr.

Croy said, is “the ways that the different characters reveal things about each other when they come from the same actor.” Photo The 1960s-inspired set of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," to be presented at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Credit Roger Mastroianni POPULARITY “I honestly believe ‘Midsummer’ is the most perfectly constructed comedy ever written,” Mr. Croy said. “Anything that’s similar that seems stale or tired is because of the literally hundreds of years of people stealing from it.” Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival Sand Harbor State Park, Incline Village, Nev.; laketahoeshakespeare.com Advertisement Continue reading the main story Directed by Charles Fee CONCEPT The 1960s setting includes paisley and leather in the costumes and a Volkswagen Beetle, right, on the outdoor set. Mr. Fee, who is artistic director at the Great Lakes Theater Festival , the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Lake Tahoe, has employed the concept before, but he said he finds it rewarding to return to familiar ground. “We begin in 1960s Athens, in a very rigid world,” he said. “It’s a little bit like a magical mystery tour.

We go out into the woods, and we have drugs put in our eyes, and we see things completely differently. It’s a bit psychedelic.” PUCK Expect a bit of Jimi Hendrix. “When I was 10 it was 1968, and I lived in San Francisco, and the fact is, he looks like one of the Merry Pranksters,” Mr. Fee said. “He’s beginning to follow a kind of guru, a sort of maharishi figure in Oberon, but he’s like the guys I saw in the city in the late ‘60s.” POPULARITY The battles for love connect with audiences, Mr. Fee said, and the play features such a wide spectrum of characters that every attendee is in some way represented on stage. “The poetry is exquisite, and the comedy is low and very, very bawdy,” he said. A version of this article appears in print on June 16, 2013, on Page AR6 of the New York edition with the headline: What Creators These Mortals Be.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe a midsummer night’s dream | Shakespeare in LA by Shakespeare in LA in Los Angeles Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Independent Shakespeare Co. Tatiana Louder and Erwin Tuazon. Photo credit: Ko Zushi Photography How do you follow up a summer season of Free Shakespeare in Griffith Park for audiences that number in the hundreds each night? By going intimate, which is exactly what Independent Shakespeare Co. is doing this fall. On Saturday, October 15, the company will open A Midsummer Night’s Dream in its Independent Studio in Atwater Village, directed by ISC’s Managing Director, David Melville. In Midsummer, the lines between dreaming and waking are deliciously blurred. As the King and Queen of fairies do battle in a fantastical forest, they find their world interrupted by mortals: four young lovers on the run and a group of amateur actors preparing for the biggest performance of their lives. As the humans submit to the magic of the woods, they find themselves in the longest, wildest, most transformative night of their lives. Director David Melville says, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream is actually one of Shakespeare’s most sophisticated plays.

In it, Shakespeare creates a world that is as confounding as it is magical. Its intricately plotted, intersecting storylines evoke a complex world full of unseen forces. Our production, in which nine actors switch almost acrobatically from role to role, is as fun and lively as the audience expects, but also explores the darker and more elemental underpinnings and energy of the play. The action of the play is over the course of one wild, mysterious night, and our production reflects that—it’s like being at a really great, weird party full of eccentrics.” The cast will feature Jose Acain, Sam Breen, April Fritz, Martha Gehman, Faqir Hassan, Tatiana Louder, Evan Lewis Smith, Erwin Tuazon and Kalean Ung. Lighting Design is by Bosco Flanagan. Costume Design is by Lauren Opplet. Composer and Sound Design by David Melville. A Gala Opening Benefit Performance and Party will take place Saturday, October 22. A benefit performance to support ISC’s ‘Theater For All’ initiative, providing access to performances all year long.

This season, 20% of the ISC Studio tickets are offered free to underserved youth, families on a limited income, and other members of our community that typically do not have access to the performing arts; through partnerships with a select group of Los Angeles school and community organizations, like P.S. ARTS. There are also a limited number of free tickets available to anyone who needs them. Tickets for the benefit are $100. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM October 15 – November 20, 2016 (opening night 10/21) Independent Studio, 3191 Casitas Avenue #168 (between Fletcher Drive and Glendale Blvd.) Atwater Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex Los Angeles, CA 90039 by Shakespeare in LA in Long Beach Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Children's Theatre of Long Beach Children’s Theatre of Long Beach will present a 90-minute performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bixby Park at the Bandshell Stage, July 22-24. The family-friendly show is produced in partnership with Friends of Bixby Park and offers free admission and an audience participation pre-show.

Bring your low-back chars, blankets and a picnic dinner to enjoy in the park and get ready for a fun, physical production full of laughs. It’s a great way to introduce the whole family to Shakespeare! A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM July 22, 23 & 24, 2016 6:00pm by Shakespeare in LA in Thousand Oaks Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival L-R: Pallavi Srinivasan (Peaseblossom), Marc Silver (Bottom) and Nawal Bengholam i(Titania). Photo by Brian Stethem/Cal Lutheran. It was a moment of art becoming life for Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s associate artistic director, Brett Elliott, when he played Lysander in the festival’s revival of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2006. That was the year he proposed to his wife, Jane, onstage while she played opposite him in the role of Hermia. To make it even more romantic (get ready to swoon ladies) Elliott used only Shakespeare’s text, and neither he nor Jane stopped the scene or broke character. He did add a single prop – a real diamond ring.

For this production, opening July 15, the roles of Lysander and Hermia will be played by Cal Lutheran alumnus Seta Wainiqolo, a graduate student at Yale School of Drama, and Angela Gulner, a graduate of the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University. Gulner played Viola two years ago in the company’s production of Twelfth Night and was last seen as the French princess, Katherine, in Henry V. Elliott sets the play in a world reminiscent of the British Raj in India at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution because he has long been struck by several references to the Indian subcontinent in the play. He says the setting is “a place where the logic and technology of the West rubs against the art and spirit of the East, where the ancient mingles with the modern, where love crosses all boundaries, and where all who enter the forest emerge changed.” Resident composer Christopher Hoag has created an orchestral score with a Hindustani Classical influence for the play.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, the mechanicals, who are all controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. It was also the first play performed by Kingsmen Shakespeare Company for its festival in 1997. In addition to Wainiqolo and Gulner, the cast will also feature returning Kingsmen veterans Andy Babinski as Philostrate, Michael Faulkner as Theseus, Ross Hellwig as Demetrius, Robert Nairn as Starveling, Jason D. Rennie as Puck, Marc Silver as Bottom and John Slade as Quince. Company newcomer Nawal Bengholam will play Titania. Ty Mayberry follows his title role in Henry V by playing Oberon. In another real life coincidence, Mayberry’s two young sons, Lucas and Leo, will make their stage debut as Changelings. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM July 15 – 31, 2016 (8pm) Kingsmen Park on the Thousand Oaks campus of California Lutheran University Festival grounds open at 5:30 pm for picnicking and entertainment.

General admission is $20 for adults and free for children under 18. Individual tickets are available at the door only. For lawn box reservations, visit kingsmenshakespeare.org or call 805-493-3452. The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company is the professional theater company of Cal Lutheran. Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Interviews , Music , Thousand Oaks Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Henry V , Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival For the past seven years, composer Christopher Hoag has conjured up battle scenes, storms, romance, and adventure with his music for Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s annual summer festival. If you’ve seen one of their productions, you know how beautifully his rich orchestral scores enhance Shakespeare’s text on their outdoor festival stage. He’s back again this year writing music for two shows: the currently running Henry V, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening July 15. Here he talks about the process of bringing the world of Shakespeare’s plays to life with music. Christopher Hoag Chris, you’re working with director Michael Arndt on Henry V. Where do you find your musical inspiration?

The reasons why the director and I make the stylistic choices we do for the Kingsmen scores are always varied. Sometimes it’s the period, sometimes it comes from a conceptual approach to the play. In the case of our Henry V, it was a combination of both. The score really stems from Michael’s idea to put the Chorus in modern times as a documentary narrator/TV reporter, and the actual events of the play proper in a more period setting. I had to bridge those two worlds. So I thought it would be fun to do a very electronic sounding score; one that’s still dramatic and orchestral in nature, but using predominately electronic orchestrations towards that end. The score is really an homage to the electronic scores that I grew up with in the 80s by composers like Vangelis, Michael Stearns, Tangerine Dream, and Wendy Carlos. It’s been great fun exploring these sounds both in a modern and period context. The electronics also have a tendency to be a bit cooler and removed emotionally, which I believe reflects Michael’s interest in how modern media portrays serious events through a sometimes very aloof and self-serving lens. Ultimately, much of the play is about war; the triumphs and the tremendous tragedies.

And those things are also major points of reference for the music. Are there particular cues or sequences we should listen for? I feel very fortunate in that I am often asked to write an “overture” for the Kingsmen shows. It’s a bit of an old-fashioned thing to do, but as a composer it’s a great opportunity to stretch out and to musically “set the emotional stage” for what you are about to experience. It’s also very helpful for me to draw from it as I go through the process of scoring the rest of the play. The overture for Henry V states the main motifs that recur numerous times throughout the show. Beyond that, I’d suggest listening for the “Once more unto the breach” speech which goes into the siege at Harfleur. I love scoring dialog. It’s a delicate thing, but when it’s working there’s nothing better for me personally. And this is such a rousing and powerful speech. Here, the music is constantly building and modulating, but never quite resolving….until the final charge into battle. Of course, aside from the director, it’s always a hugely important thing for the actors to be okay with the music I write for them.

And in this case our Henry, played brilliantly by Ty Mayberry, asked for a copy of the music so he could work with it. The cue is in two parts and it’s built in such a way that Ty has plenty of room to play. It’s a good example of the wonderfully collaborative nature of this company. More Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Inland Empire , Pomona Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Ophelia's Jump , Othello Ophelia’s Jump’s Annual Midsummer Shakespeare Festival presents two Shakespeare classics beginning July 14. Performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (opening 7/14) and Othello (opening 7/15) will alternate each night in Pomona College’s Sontag Greek Theatre, a beautiful outdoor amphitheater originally built in 1910 and renovated in 1997. Prior to the performance, a 30-minute Green Show acts as an entertaining prelude to the main performance. Bring a picnic and don’t forget a small blanket or cushion for added comfort. The productions will run through July 24 at The Sontag Greek Theatre at Pomona College in Claremont.

The festival, co-sponsored by Pomona College, includes exhibits, arts and crafts by community businesses and organizations. Tickets are available at , or by calling 909-541-5850. Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Los Angeles Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Independent Shakespeare Co. , Made in L.A. The Made in L.A. cultural series is offering a special free performance of Independent Shakespeare Co.’s Bottom’s Dream, a Whimsical Re-telling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Sunday, May 15 downtown at the Central Library. The performance begins at 2pm in the library’s Mark Taper Auditorium. Space is limited. For complete details, to make a reservation, and to read the standby policy go to Lapl.me or call (213) 228-7388. ISC presents the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival each summer and this family-friendly performance is a great prelude to their upcoming season, which includes Shakespeare’s Richard III and The Tempest performed on an outdoor stage in Griffith Park.

In its quest to build community and bring quality entertainment to all of Los Angeles, ISC continues to create theatre that appeals to a contemporary audience and form partnerships with other city and community organizations that share its mission. ISC’s co-founder David Melville will also lead a class at Palms Rancho Park Library on Tuesday, May 24 from 6m – 8pm. In this session he will introduce audience members to the history and fundamentals of lyrical verse speaking, beginning with Chaucer and moving through Shakespeare’s English. For more about Made in L.A.’s cultural series of free performances visit Lapl.org/madeinla . Photo of Danny Campbell as Bottom and Melissa Chalsma as Titania by Grettel Cortes Photography Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Thousand Oaks Tags: a midsummer night's dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo credit: Brian Stethem/Cal Lutheran Looking for a fun way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death? Take a drive up to the campus of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks for the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare-a-thon on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 & 24.

They’ll be celebrating with 24 hours of activities including a sonnet marathon, a candlelight reading of Macbeth and Shakespeare yoga. It’s a free Bard-day bash beginning with a welcome reception at 4pm on the 23rd, which is the date of Shakespeare’s death and also, according to tradition, his birth in 1564. Events will continue with a game at 6:30 pm, a panel discussion on setting plays in traditional and alternative settings at 7 pm, and an interactive Shakespeare slam at 8 pm. Macbeth will be read by candlelight at 9:30 pm. and musical works inspired by the Bard will be played starting at midnight. Additional events include a presentation on the concept of time in Romeo and Juliet at 5:30 pm by Bill Walthall, a former high school English and drama teacher in Oxnard who writes The Bill Shakespeare Project blog. Then at 6 pm, the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare Educational Tour will give a workshop demonstration.

April 24 will begin with yoga incorporating Shakespeare quotations at 8am (just think about that for a moment) and continue with a sonnet brunch at 10:30, a cabaret 11:30, and conclude with a reception at 3:30 pm. A panel of actors will share their experiences portraying Hamlet at 9:30 am and a full reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will be featured at this year’s summer festival, will begin at 12:30 pm. Also part of the summer festival is Henry V, an educational tour to local schools, an apprentice company, and a theater camp. Throughout the marathon, visitors will be able to step into a video-recording booth to talk about their connections to Shakespeare and the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company. Snippets will be shared prior to the closing reception. All events will be held in or around Overton Hall, which is located on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue. Free parking is available in the lots at the corner of Olsen Road and Mountclef Blvd. If you can’t make it in person, the Shakespeare-a-thon will also be streamed live at CalLutheran.edu/live .

For more information, go to KingsmenShakespeare.org/400-years . Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Films , Los Angeles Tags: a midsummer night's dream , Arena Cinema , as you like it , Chimes at Midnight , king lear , taming of the shrew Mark your calendars now: Arena Cinema Hollywood is commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death by presenting a Free Shakespeare film series. While the films are free, you must still make a reservation online at ArenaScreen.com or by calling (323) 306-0676. The Shakespeare series runs April 22 – 28 at Arena Cinema Hollywood, 1625 N. Las Palmas Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90028. Here’s what’s on the docket: As You Like It Sat. April 23 at 4:00 and Tues. April 26 at 5:30 This U.S. premiere is directed by Michael Elliott and Ronald Eyre and stars Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Allen, Ian Richardson, Patsy Byrne, Max Adrian and Patrick Wymark. BBC Worldwide North America.

B&W, 1963 U.K., 135 minutes. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Sunday, April 24 at 7:40; Thurs. April 28 at 5:30 Also a U.S. premiere, it is directed by James Cellan Jones and produced by Cedric Messina, starring Lynn Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Edward Fox, Eleanor Bron, Robert Stephens and Ronnie Barker. Set in Edwardian England and filmed in and around Scotney Castle in Kent. BBC Worldwide North America. Color, 1971, U.K., 120 minutes. King Lear Sun. April 24 at 5:00; Mon. April 25 at 7:10 Directed and adapted by Richard Eyre, this National Theater production is done in a sparse modernistic style and stars Ian Holm, Victoria Hamilton, Amanda Redman, Barbara Flynn, Timothy West and Paul Rhys. BBC Worldwide North America. Color, 1998, U.K./U.S.A., 150 minutes. The Taming of the Shrew Sat. Apr. 23 at 9:55 p.m.; Tues.

April 26 at 7:50 Directed by David Richards, adapted by Sally Wainwright and produced by Diederick Santer starring Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, Santiago Cabrera, Twiggy Lawson, Jaime Murray and David Mitchell. In this sexy update, Kate is a Member of Parliament who marries up in order to advance her goal of becoming a party leader. BBC Worldwide North America. Color, 2005, U.K., 90 minutes. Chimes at Midnight Fri. Apr. 22 at 6:30; Sat. Apr. 23 at 6:20; Wed. April 27 at 7:10; Thurs. April 28 at 7:35 Directed by Orson Welles. Adapted by Welles from Henry IV, Part One; Henry IV, Part Two; and Henry V and The Holinshed Chronicles. Produced by Harry Saltzman, Emiliano Piedra and Angel Escolano. Starring Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Keith Baxter, John Gielgud, Margaret Rutherford and Marina Vlady. Orson Welles as Falstaff in one of Welles’ finest achievements. Janus Films.

B&W, 1967, France/Spain/Switzerland, 113 minutes. Hamlet Sun. Apr. 24 at 3:30; Mon. Apr. 25 at 5:30. Wed. Apr. 27 at 5:30 Directed and adapted by Bruce Ramsay. Produced by Ramsay, Joseph Gould and John Cassini. Starring Bruce Ramsay, Lara Gilchrist, Peter Wingfield, Gillian Barber, John Cassini and Duncan Fraser. This modern-dress version of the story of the melancholy Danish prince and the intrigues surrounding his family is set in postwar London. Breaking Glass Pictures. Color, 2014, Canada, 88 minutes. Discounted parking is available with validation at lots adjacent to the venue and across the street.

Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Los Angeles Tags: a midsummer night's dream , romeo & juliet , Theatricum Botanicum , Titus Andronicus In 2016 we celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and, in Topanga Canyon, Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum will feature three of Shakespeare’s classics as part of its upcoming summer season. Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus, and the company’s signature production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will join Tom, a world premiere adaptation with music and The Imaginary Invalid for another spectacular season outdoor under the oaks. Here is the complete season which has been chosen to shine a light on current social issues both timely and significant in this important election year. The company will examine: The Middle East through the lens of Shakespeare: The repertory season kicks off on June 4 with Romeo and Juliet, set in East Jerusalem. Director Ellen Geer elucidates the continued relevance of this 421-year-old play, setting Shakespeare’s tale of forbidden love and warring families in a city beset by age-old prejudices, street violence and religious differences.

More Share this: by Shakespeare in LA in Interviews , Los Angeles Tags: a midsummer night's dream , UCLA TFT The cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photos by Michael Lamont A very special production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is on stage right now at UCLA, presented by the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. It features second- and third- year M.F.A. students from UCLA TFT’s Department of Theater and is unique because it is being directed by Ellen Lauren, co-artistic director of New York’s SITI Company and UCLA Visiting Associate Professor. For the past 30 years, Lauren has been an associate artist with the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) based in Japan under the direction of Tadashi Suzuki. A faculty member at The Juilliard School of Drama at Lincoln Center since 1995, she is also a recipient of the TCG Fox Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, and founding member of the International Symposium on the Suzuki Method of Actor Training. Now, her students are putting into practice the techniques they have been studying with her in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in California in the early 1930s.

It was a time when thousands migrated from the Dust Bowl states to find a new life and it was also a time of innovation and experimentation in Hollywood. For so many, hardship was alleviated by escaping into the dreamlike world of the darkened movie theaters. More Share this: SparkNotes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Plot Overview A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare Context Character List Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master of the Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men, Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law to fall on Hermia’s head if she flouts her father’s will.

Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to consider her options, warning her that disobeying her father’s wishes could result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, some seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind him. In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The first is a band of fairies, including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned from India to bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride.

Oberon and Titania are at odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother; the boy is so beautiful that Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking revenge, Oberon sends his merry servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of which can be spread over a sleeping person’s eyelids to make that person fall in love with the first thing he or she sees upon waking. Puck obtains the flower, and Oberon tells him of his plan to spread its juice on the sleeping Titania’s eyelids. Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Lysander happens to see Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her, abandoning Hermia. As the night progresses and Puck attempts to undo his mistake, both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena, who believes that they are mocking her.

Hermia becomes so jealous that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight. Demetrius and Lysander nearly do fight over Helena’s love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their voices, leading them apart until they are lost separately in the forest. When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania passes a ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed weaver. Eventually, Oberon obtains the Indian boy, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids, and by morning all is well. Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to Athens to be married—Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves Hermia. After the group wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a fumbling, hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the play is completed, the lovers go to bed; the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a protective charm and then disappear.

Only Puck remains, to ask the audience for its forgiveness and approval and to urge it to remember the play as though it had all been a dream. Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb : A Midsummer Night's Dream Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased; for upon a daughter’s refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents with the terrors of it. There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus, who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander.

Egeus demanded justice of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might be put in force against his daughter. Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that Demetrius had formerly professed love for her dear friend Helena, and that Helena loved Demetrius to distraction; but this honourable reason, which Hermia gave for not obeying her father’s command, moved not the stern Egeus. Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no power to alter the laws of his country; therefore he could only give Hermia four days to consider of it: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death. When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the duke, she went to her lover Lysander, and told him the peril she was in, and that she must either give him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four days.

Lysander was in great affliction at hearing these evil tidings; but recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens, and that at the place where she lived the cruel law could not be put in force against Hermia (this law not extending beyond the boundaries of the city), he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her father’s house that night, and go with him to his aunt’s house, where he would marry her. “I will meet you,” said Lysander, “in the wood a few miles without the city; in that delightful wood where we have so often walked with Helena in the pleasant month of May.” To this proposal Hermia joyfully agreed; and she told no one of her intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this to Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her friend’s secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in pursuit of Hermia.

The wood, in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the favourite haunt of those little beings known by the name of Fairies. Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the Fairies, with all their tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels. Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear. The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania’s refusing to give Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania’s friend; and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and brought him up in the woods. The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his train of fairy courtiers. “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania,” said the fairy king. The queen replied, “What, jealous Oberon, is it you?

Fairies, skip hence; I have forsworn his company.” “Tarry, rash fairy,” said Oberon; “am not I thy lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling boy to be my page.” “Set your heart at rest,” answered the queen; “your whole fairy kingdom buys not the boy of me.” She then left her lord in great anger. “Well, go your way,” said Oberon: “before the morning dawns I will torment you for this injury.” Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favourite and privy counsellor. Puck, (or as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the neighbouring villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk, sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the butter-churn, and while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn, in vain the dairy-maid would labour to change her cream into butter: nor had the village swains any better success; whenever Puck chose to play his freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was sure to be spoiled.

When a few good neighbours were met to drink some comfortable ale together, Puck would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab, and when some old goody was going to drink he would bob against her lips, and spill the ale over her withered chin; and presently after, when the same old dame was gravely seating herself to tell her neighbours a sad and melancholy story, Puck would slip her three-legged stool from under her, and down toppled the poor old woman, and then the old gossips would hold their sides and laugh at her, and swear they never wasted a merrier hour. “Come hither, Puck,” said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the night; “fetch me the flower which maids call Love in Idleness; the juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyelids of those who sleep, will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they see.

Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my Titania when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a bear, a meddling monkey, or a busy ape; and before I will take this charm from off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I will make her give me that boy to be my page.” Puck, who loved mischief to his heart, was highly diverted with this intended frolic of his master, and ran to seek the flower; and while Oberon was waiting the return of Puck, he observed Demetrius and Helena enter the wood: he overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for following him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle expostulations from Helena, reminding him of his former love and professions of true faith to her, he left her (as he said) to the mercy of the wild beasts, and she ran after him as swiftly as she could.

The fairy king, who was always friendly to true lovers, felt great compassion for Helena; and perhaps, as Lysander said they used to walk by moonlight in this pleasant wood, Oberon might have seen Helena in those happy times when she was beloved by Demetrius. However that might be, when Puck returned with the little purple flower, Oberon said to his favourite, “Take a part of this flower; there has been a sweet Athenian lady here, who is in love with a disdainful youth; if you find him sleeping, drop some of the love-juice in his eyes, but contrive to do it when she is near him, that the first thing he sees when he awakes may be this despised lady. You will know the man by the Athenian garments which he wears.” Puck promised to manage this matter very dexterously: and then Oberon went, unperceived by Titania, to her bower, where she was preparing to go to rest. Her fairy bower was a bank, where grew wild thyme, cowslips, and sweet violets, under a canopy of wood-bine, musk-roses, and eglantine.

There Titania always slept some part of the night; her coverlet the enamelled skin of a snake, which, though a small mantle, was wide enough to wrap a fairy in. He found Titania giving orders to her fairies, how they were to employ themselves while she slept. “Some of you,” said her majesty, “must kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, and some wage war with the bats for their leathern wings, to make my small elves coats; and some of you keep watch that the clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, come not near me: but first sing me to sleep.” Then they began to sing this song:— “You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms do no wrong Come not near our Fairy Queen.

Philomel, with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby, Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby; Never harm, nor spell, nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; So good night with lullaby.” When the fairies had sung their queen asleep with this pretty lullaby, they left her to perform the important services she had enjoined them. Oberon then softly drew near his Titania, and dropped some of the love-juice on her eyelids, saying — “What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true-love take.” But to return to Hermia, who made her escape out of her father’s house that night, to avoid the death she was doomed to for refusing to marry Demetrius.

When she entered the wood, she found her dear Lysander waiting for her, to conduct her to his aunt’s house; but before they had passed half through the wood, Hermia was so much fatigued, that Lysander, who was very careful of this dear lady, who had proved her affection for him even by hazarding her life for his sake, persuaded her to rest till morning on a bank of soft moss, and lying down himself on the ground at some little distance, they soon fell fast asleep. Here they were found by Puck, who, seeing a handsome young man asleep, and perceiving that his clothes were made in the Athenian fashion, and that a pretty lady was sleeping near him, concluded that this must be the Athenian maid and her disdainful lover whom Oberon had sent him to seek; and he naturally enough conjectured that, as they were alone together, she must be the first thing he would see when he awoke; so, without more ado, he proceeded to pour some of the juice of the little purple flower into his eyes.

But it so fell out, that Helena came that way, and, instead of Hermia, was the first object Lysander beheld when he opened his eyes; and strange to relate, so powerful was the love-charm, all his love for Hermia vanished away, and Lysander fell in love with Helena. Had he first seen Hermia when he awoke, the blunder Puck committed would have been of no consequence, for he could not love that faithful lady too well; but for poor Lysander to be forced by a fairy love-charm to forget his own true Hermia, and to run after another lady, and leave Hermia asleep quite alone in a wood at midnight, was a sad chance indeed. Thus this misfortune happened. Helena, as has been before related, endeavoured to keep pace with Demetrius when he ran away so rudely from her; but she could not continue this unequal race long, men being always better runners in a long race than ladies. Helena soon lost sight of Demetrius; and as she was wandering about, dejected and forlorn, she arrived at the place where Lysander was sleeping.

“Ah!” said she, “this is Lysander lying on the ground: is he dead or asleep?” Then, gently touching him, she said, “Good sir, if you are alive, awake.” Upon this Lysander opened his eyes, and (the love-charm beginning to work) immediately addressed her in terms of extravagant love and admiration; telling her she as much excelled Hermia in beauty as a dove does a raven, and that he would run through fire for her sweet sake; and many more such lover-like speeches. Helena, knowing Lysander was her friend Hermia’s lover, and that he was solemnly engaged to marry her, was in the utmost rage when she heard herself addressed in this manner; for she thought (as well she might) that Lysander was making a jest of her. “Oh!” said she, “why was I born to be mocked and scorned by every one? Is it not enough, is it not enough, young man, that I can never get a sweet look or a kind word from Demetrius; but you, sir, must pretend in this disdainful manner to court me?

I thought, Lysander, you were a lord of more true gentleness.” Saying these words in great anger, she ran away; and Lysander followed her, quite forgetful of his own Hermia, who was still asleep. When Hermia awoke, she was in a sad fright at finding herself alone. She wandered about the wood, not knowing what was become of Lysander, or which way to go to seek for him. In the meantime Demetrius not being able to find Hermia and his rival Lysander, and fatigued with his fruitless search, was observed by Oberon fast asleep.

Oberon had learnt by some questions he had asked of Puck, that he had applied the love-charm to the wrong person’s eyes; and now having found the person first intended, he touched the eyelids of the sleeping Demetrius with the love-juice, and he instantly awoke; and the first thing he saw being Helena, he, as Lysander had done before, began to address love-speeches to her; and just at that moment Lysander, followed by Hermia (for through Puck’s unlucky mistake it was now become Hermia’s turn to run after her lover) made his appearance; and then Lysander and Demetrius, both speaking together, made love to Helena, they being each one under the influence of the same potent charm. The astonished Helena thought that Demetrius, Lysander, and her once dear friend Hermia, were all in a plot together to make a jest of her. Hermia was as much surprised as Helena: she knew not why Lysander and Demetrius, who both before loved her, were now become the lovers of Helena; and to Hermia the matter seemed to be no jest.

The ladies, who before had always been the dearest of friends, now fell to high words together. “Unkind Hermia,” said Helena, “it is you have set Lysander on to vex me with mock praises; and your other lover Demetrius, who used almost to spurn me with his foot, have you not bid him call me Goddess, Nymph, rare, precious, and celestial? He would not speak thus to me, whom he hates, if you did not set him on to make a jest of me. Unkind Hermia, to join with men in scorning your poor friend. Have you forgot our school-day friendship? How often, Hermia, have we two, sitting on one cushion, both singing one song, with our needles working the same flower, both on the same sampler wrought; growing up together in fashion of a double cherry, scarcely seeming parted!

Hermia, it is not friendly in you, it is not maidenly to join with men in scorning your poor friend.” “I am amazed at your passionate words,” said Hermia: “I scorn you not; it seems you scorn me.” “Ay, do,” returned Helena, “persevere, counterfeit serious looks, and make mouths at me when I turn my back; then wink at each other, and hold the sweet jest up. If you had any pity, grace, or manners, you would not use me thus.” While Helena and Hermia were speaking these angry words to each other, Demetrius and Lysander left them, to fight together in the wood for the love of Helena. When they found the gentlemen had left them, they departed, and once more wandered weary in the wood in search of their lovers. As soon as they were gone, the fairy king, who with little Puck had been listening to their quarrels, said to him, “This is your negligence, Puck; or did you do this wilfully?” “Believe me, king of shadows,” answered Puck, “it was a mistake; did not you tell me I should know the man by his Athenian garments?

However, I am not sorry this has happened, for I think their jangling makes excellent sport.” “You heard,” said Oberon, “that Demetrius and Lysander are gone to seek a convenient place to fight in. I command you to overhang the night with a thick fog, and lead these quarrelsome lovers so astray in the dark, that they shall not be able to find each other. Counterfeit each of their voices to the other, and with bitter taunts provoke them to follow you, while they think it is their rival’s tongue they hear. See you do this, till they are so weary they can go no farther; and when you find they are asleep, drop the juice of this other flower into Lysander’s eyes, and when he awakes he will forget his new love for Helena, and return to his old passion for Hermia; and then the two fair ladies may each one be happy with the man she loves, and they will think all that has passed a vexatious dream.

About this quickly, Puck, and I will go and see what sweet love my Titania has found.” Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon seeing a clown near her, who had lost his way in the wood, and was likewise asleep: “This fellow,” said he, “shall be my Titania’s true love;” and clapping an ass’s head over the clown’s, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass’s head on very gently, it awakened him, and rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him, he went towards the bower where the fairy queen slept. “Ah! what angel is that I see?” said Titania, opening her eyes, and the juice of the little purple flower beginning to take effect: “are you as wise as you are beautiful?” “Why, mistress,” said the foolish clown, “if I have wit enough to find the way out of this wood, I have enough to serve my turn.” “Out of the wood do not desire to go,” said the enamoured queen. “I am a spirit of no common rate. I love you.

Go with me, and I will give you fairies to attend upon you.” She then called four of her fairies: their names were, Pease-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed. Where is Pease-Blossom? “Attend,” said the queen, “upon this sweet gentleman; hop in his walks, and gambol in his sight; feed him with grapes and apricots, and steal for him the honey-bags from the bees. Come, sit with me,” said she to the clown, “and let me play with your amiable hairy cheeks, my beautiful ass! and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy!” “Where is Pease-blossom?” said the ass-headed clown, not much regarding the fairy queen’s courtship, but very proud of his new attendants. “Here, sir,” said little Pease-blossom. “Scratch my head,” said the clown. “Where is Cobweb?” “Here, sir,” said Cobweb. “Good Mr. Cobweb,” said the foolish clown, “kill me the red humble bee on the top of that thistle yonder; and, good Mr.

Cobweb, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Mr. Cobweb, and take care the honey-bag break not; I should be sorry to have you overflown with a honey-bag. Where is Mustard-seed?” “Here, sir,” said Mustard-seed: “what is your will?” “Nothing,” said the clown, “good Mr. Mustard-seed, but to help Mr. Pease-blossom to scratch; I must go to a barber’s, Mr. Mustard-seed, for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face.” “My sweet love,” said the queen, “what will you have to eat? I have a venturous fairy shall seek the squirrel’s hoard, and fetch you some new nuts.” “I had rather have a handful of dried pease,” said the clown, who with his ass’s head had got an ass’s appetite. “But, I pray, let none of your people disturb me, for I have a mind to sleep.” “Sleep, then,” said the queen, “and I will wind you in my arms. O how I love you!

how I dote upon you!” When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her favours upon an ass. This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within her arms, with his ass’s head crowned by her with flowers. When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with her new favourite, did not dare to refuse him. Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania, and threw some of the juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately recovered her senses, and wondered at her late dotage, saying how she now loathed the sight of the strange monster. Oberon likewise took the ass’s head from off the clown, and left him to finish his nap with his own fool’s head upon his shoulders.

Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related to her the history of the lovers, and their midnight quarrels; and she agreed to go with him and see the end of their adventures. The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies, at no great distance from each other, sleeping on a grass-plot; for Puck, to make amends for his former mistake, had contrived with the utmost diligence to bring them all to the same spot, unknown to each other; and he had carefully removed the charm from off the eyes of Lysander with the antidote the fairy king gave to him. Hermia first awoke, and finding her lost Lysander asleep so near her, was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy. Lysander presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his reason which the fairy charm had before clouded, and with his reason, his love for Hermia; and they began to talk over the adventures of the night, doubting if these things had really happened, or if they had both been dreaming the same bewildering dream.

Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep having quieted Helena’s disturbed and angry spirits, she listened with delight to the professions of love which Demetrius still made to her, and which, to her surprise as well as pleasure, she began to perceive were sincere. These fair night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became once more true friends; all the unkind words which had passed were forgiven, and they calmly consulted together what was best to be done in their present situation. It was soon agreed that, as Demetrius had given up his pretensions to Hermia, he should endeavour to prevail upon her father to revoke the cruel sentence of death which had been passed against her. Demetrius was preparing to return to Athens for this friendly purpose, when they were surprised with the sight of Egeus, Hermia’s father, who came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway daughter.

When Egeus understood that Demetrius would not now marry his daughter, he no longer opposed her marriage with Lysander, but gave his consent that they should be wedded on the fourth day from that time, being the same day on which Hermia had been condemned to lose her life; and on that same day Helena joyfully agreed to marry her beloved and now faithful Demetrius. The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers’ history, brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much pleasure, that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching nuptials with sports and revels throughout their fairy kingdom. And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures were visions which they saw in their sleep: and I hope none of my readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty harmless Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Question: Near which city is Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' set?
Answer: Athens