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Playgoer’s Guide

The Story

 

It’s summertime in Athens, and the playful sprite Puck gathers his feisty fairy band for some midsummer mischief. The wedding celebrations for Theseus, Duke of Athens, are interrupted by a visit from an angry nobleman, Egeus, and his daughter, Hermia. Egeus is furious with Hermia, who refuses to marry Demetrius, the suitor he favors. Hermia rejects Demetrius as she is in love with Lysander, and refuses to back down. Egeus quotes an ancient Athenian law that gives his daughter three choices: she must either marry Demetrius, live as a nun, or be put to death. Desperate and unhappy, Lysander persuades Hermia to flee the city with him.

Hermia’s best friend Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, discovers their plan. Desperate to please Demetrius, Helena tells him of Hermia’s flight to the woods with Lysander and Demetrius pursues them. He is followed by a lovesick Helena who he is desperate to escape from.

The two couples enter the woods, where the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, are having relationship problems of their own. Jealous of the attention Titania is giving to an adopted changeling child, Oberon commands his fairy attendant Puck to fetch a magic flower so he can play a revengeful trick on her. This enchanted herb causes its victim to fall in love with the first creature that they see. Observing Demetrius’s cruel treatment of Helena, Oberon tells Puck to enchant Demetrius with the flower’s juice so he will fall in love with her. Puck mistakenly enchants Lysander, who promptly falls in love with Helena instead, much to Hermia’s dismay.

Also in the woods that night is a troupe of amateur actors rehearsing a play they hope to perform for the Duke. Puck transforms one of them into a donkey, with whom Titania falls in love after being given the love juice by Oberon.

With love tangled everywhere, chaos ensues!

The Characters

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