A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

Two pairs of star-crossed lovers, a feuding fairy king and his stubborn queen, a love potion gone awry, and a troupe of bumbling actors weave a comedy of errors in Shakepeare’s beloved tale.

Ring in the Spring with A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Matthews. In William Shakespeare’s classic comedy, residents of Athens mix with fairies from a local forest, with absurd results. Theseus, Duke of Athens, is to marry Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. In hopes of staging a play for the wedding celebration, Bottom the Weaver and his friends rehearse in the woods with results that can only be described as hopelessly ridiculous.

Meanwhile, four young lovers are in a romantic tangle. Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia; she loves Lysander, and her friend Helena loves Demetrius. Hermia’s father, Egeus, commands Hermia to marry Demetrius. All four young people end up in the woods where the fairy Puck, who serves the fairy king Oberon, puts a spell on Lysander, and then Demetrius, unintentionally causing both to love Helena. Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses the same magic on her, causing her to fall in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to Puck, wears an ass’s head.

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