Jane Delworth

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare

August 18, 2018

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about the converging storylines of four lovers, the King and
Queen of fairies, and a theater troupe over the course of one night. The plot follows Hermia and
Lysander, a pair of lovers running away from Hermia’s mother, who is trying to set Hermia up with
Demetrius, Helena, who is madly in love with Demetrius, and Demetrius, who wants nothing to do with
Helena, but wants Hermia desperately as they all traverse the woods which the Queen of fairies, Titania,
is using as a home. The King, Oberon, and Queen fight over a changeling child the queen has adopted,
and after Oberon storms off he summons his assistant, Puck, to get a flower which has the power to
make someone fall in love with the first person they set their eyes on, in hopes of pranking Titania by
making her fall in love with a beast. Oberon then sees Demetrius fighting with Helena and instructs Puck
to make Demetrius fall in love with her. Puck instead accidentally makes Lysander fall in love with
Helena, and in the course of trying to fix things, he accidentally makes both Lysander and Demetrius in
love with Helena. The third plot line is about a small theater troupe trying to perform at an important
upcoming wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta, starring an aspiring actor, Nick Bottom, who tries to
play every role at once in the play and overacts everything. When the troupe rehearses in the woods,
Puck turns Nick’s head into that of a donkey and makes sure that Titania wakes up so that she sees him
and falls madly in love with him, tending to his every need. Eventually Puck resolves everything, Making
Lysander love Hermia again and giving Nick his human head back, making it all seem like a dream.

This production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream was clearly set in modern-day Greece, shown by
the modern clothing the characters wore. The stage was quite bare, without much furniture or décor,
other than a couple of major pieces like Titania’s bed or the vines that came out to signify the woods,
and there was plenty of room for the actors to move around on. The stage was a thrust stage, and the
actors often came out into the audience when they were running away or something. The costuming
was very clever, and clearly represented the characters. For instance, Titania wore a long dress made
entirely of flowers. A lot of actors got re-used for parts, like the actors who played Oberon and Titania
also played Theseus and Hippolyta, showing strong parallels between the characters and their
relationship. There weren’t many special effects, other than a couple of spotlights. The sound quality
was pretty good, but Theseus/Oberon’s mic kept cutting out near the end. The music they had playing
was also very nice and definitely helped set the mood for every scene. The play was organized in a very
linear fashion, with maybe one or two flashback-like sequences.
 The acting in the play was incredible, and I really saw each actor AS their character, truly felt as
if they were actually feeling their characters emotions, no actor was even remotely sub-standard in my
opinion.

The purpose of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is showing how powerful and dangerous love can
be, while also being a comedy. The director behind this production, Jaclynn Jutting, clearly was
attempting to apply the story to a modern setting, which is a very good way to give old plays new
relevance and relatability, and she definitely succeeded in this task. This production was very worth
watching and I would absolutely recommend it to a friend.