Theatre History II Blog Entry One

I chose to research A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare for the blog assignment. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy about four "lovers" who have an eventful night in the forest.

Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing to marry Hippolyta, queen of Amazons. He is searching for "proper" entertainment for the wedding festival. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, is the father of Hermia and he wishes her to wed Demetrius. Hermia wishes to marry Lysander. Hermia and Lysander make plans to escape Athens and marry. They tell Helena, Hermia's friend, of their plans. Helena was once engaged to Demetrius and loves him still. Helena sees this as her chance to get Demetrius back and tells him of the couples’ intentions.  Demetius marches into the woods with Helena following.

In the woods are a band of fairies and a band of Athenian craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the Duke's wedding. Oberon and Titania, the fairie king and queen, are arguing over an Indian prince given to Titania as a gift. In an act of revenge Oberon send his servant, Puck, to find a magical flower. The juice of the flower, when spread over a sleeping person's eyes, causes the person to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Puck is to spread it over Titania's eyelids, but after seeing Demetrius be cruel towards Helena he orders Puck to spread the juice on the eyelids of a young Athenian man. Puck finds Hermia and Lysander in the woods. Thinking this is the man he gives Lysander the love potion. Upon waking Lysander happens to see Helena first. He falls deeply in love with Helena. The rest of the evening Puck tries to fix his mistake. In the process Demetrius is put under the spell of the love potion and falls in love with Helena as well. Helena thinks that the men are mocking her. 

Hermia challenges Helena to a fight out of jealousy. Lysander and Demetrius almost fight over Helena's love. Puck imitates their voices to confuse them. He leads them away from each other until they are lost in the woods. 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. The acting troop performs for the group wedding and the show ends with Puck asking for forgiveness if the show offended anyone.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!." A Midsummer Nights Dream. Web. 6 Mar 2011. <http://collegiatelabs.com/midsummernight/?page_id=9>.