Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.
Video SparkNotes: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream summary
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.
Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, incidental music by German composer Felix Mendelssohn written to accompany performances of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Prussian royal court.
Mendelssohn became familiar with Shakespeare by reading German translations as a boy, and in 1827, at age 17, he was inspired to write a piece capturing the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s comedy. The piece, a concert overture, quickly became a popular favourite throughout Europe.
Shakespeare develops a broad range of memorable and contrasting characters from ancient Athens in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’: royalty, nobility, lowly craftsmen – and fairies. This programme deconstructs the comedy in an engaging way using dialogue to examine some of its key characters, including Titania, Demetrius, Helena, Puck, Lysander, Hermia, and Bottom. It is an ideal resource for students of English and Literature.
Understanding the context and background of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is critical to appreciating the techniques Shakespeare employed when creating this comedic literary classic. This programme deconstructs the play in an engaging and playful way, using dialogue between some of its key characters to investigate its context and background. It is an ideal resource for students of English and Literature.
Classic Shakespeare play adapted for television by Russell T Davies. In the tyrannical court of Athens, pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, and young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father. Meanwhile, in the town below, amateur theatre group the Mechanicals rehearse, with all their comic rivalries. And beyond Athens, in the wild woods, dark forces are stirring..
(Britannica)
(Royal Shakespeare Company)
(Playshakespear.com)
