Theseus And Hippolyta In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus and Hippolyta are soon to be married. Theseus, being the Duke, encounters a father who explains his predicament and asks Theseus to pass judgement. This man, Egeus, has a beautiful daughter named Hermia. He has told her she will marry Demetrius, but she has fallen in love with Lysander, a simple man of Athens. The Duke tells her that she has a month to marry the man of her father’s choosing, die, or become a nun. She wishes to do neither of these things and runs to the forest to marry Lysander. Meanwhile Oberon, king of the fairy folk, has ordered his servant Puck to retrieve a magical flower to bestow upon his wife Titania. This flower holds the power to cause whomever it is administered to, to fall in

love with the first thing they see. This causes chaos as they story unfolds as Puck attempts three times over to complete the newest assignment Oberon has given him. He was to use the same flower and cause Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, Hermia’s lifelong friend who is in love with Demetrius. He mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and causes him to forget Hermia entirely and focus his love and affection on Helena. Titania has been in the forest asleep all this time, and awakes to find a man with a donkey head.

He was previously an actor (though I don’t know that one would call him that), but was a victim of one of Puck’s pranks. She is instantly smitten and Oberon is furious. He attempts to fix the problem himself by using the previously mentioned flower on Demetrius as originally planned. However, this creates a problem as now there are two men pining for Helena and Hermia is left alone. Helena believes that this is a well thought out joke between the three of them, and gets upset with Hermia. Hermia, however, is not the cause and is very upset at Helen who has “stolen” her own lover and now her betrothed, not that she cared much for him anyhow. Lysander and Demetrius plan a duel for Helena’s heart but once again fall victim to Puck. This time around, Puck rights his wrong doing by fixing Lysander. While he still has access to the flower, Oberon allows the drops of it to, once again, find his wife’s eyes. Puck removes Bottom, the “actor’s”, donkey head and sends him on his way. The Duke decides that if all are happy, Hermia may marry Lysander as she wishes. All is well and Bottom and his troupe perform a miserable play for the three pairs of

newlyweds.
I greatly enjoyed this performance. The choice of live music was a well thought out choice in my opinion. The choice of cool and warm colors to set the mood was very effective for the audience. I thought that the set was expertly put together to minimize scene changes and keep the attention of the audience. I also thought that the change of scene from the fairy world and the regular world was excellent. The scene portion where Oberon realizes that Puck has made a terrible mistake was very funny, and the fight between Hermia and Helena was very entertaining. I found the staging very well done. I couldn't see very well but it appeared as though Hermia’s makeup was running. I wish I could have seen more of the story behind why Oberon was using the flower on Titania, and the backstory, if there is one, of Bottom and his group.