A Midsummer Night’s Musical – Precis
Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival of celebration and entertainment. He commissions his servants (Philostrate and wife Flaminia) to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, marches into Theseus’ court with his daughter Hermia and two young men, Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, but Hermia loves Lysander and refuses to comply. If Hermia continues to flout his will, Egeus asks for the full penalty of law to fall on her head. Theseus warns Hermia that disobeying her father’s wishes could result in being sent to a convent or even being executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, who lives in Crete. 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 planned elopement, whereupon he stalks into the woods after his intended bride and her lover. Helena follows.
In these same woods exist two very different groups of characters. The first is an assortment of Athenian craftsmen preparing to rehearse a play they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. We see these amateur actors as they receive their parts and pose preposterously as the characters they will play.
The second group is a band of fairies, including fairy king Oberon and his queen Titania, who at this moment 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; 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 eyes to make that person fall in love with the first living 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 also orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the young Athenian man.
In seeking to carry out Oberon’s orders, Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia. Thinking that Lysander is the Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Upon waking, Lysander happens to see Helena and immediately 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 jealous and is ready to fight Helena. To prevent Demetrius and Lysander from coming to blows, Puck mimics 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 pompous of the Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania passes a ludicrous idyll doting on the ass-headed weaver.
Eventually, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids, Oberon obtains the Indian boy; and by morning all is well. Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus discover the sleeping lovers in the forest, Egeus accedes to his daughter’s wishes, and all go back to Athens for a group wedding – Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander, Hermia. After the festivities, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a fumbling, unintentionally hilarious version of Pyramus and Thisbe. Then the newly-wedded lovers go to bed and the fairies emerge to bless them with a protective charm. Finally, only Puck remains, to ask for the audience’s forgiveness for this telling of events and to urge them to remember it as a mere dream.
Jill Strachan
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW)
545 7th Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003
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www.chaw.org
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