A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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* 24th-26th June at 7:45pm: Birmingham Botanical Gardens
* 28th June at 7.00pm: Castle Bromwich Gardens
* 5th-6th July at 7.00pm: Hall’s Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon
* 18th-19th July at 7.00pm and 20th at 3.00pm: Harvington Hall
* 24th July: Salobrena, Andalucia, Spain

The Crescent’s ever popular tour is again visiting beautiful locations around the region – bring a picnic and your own seating – and sit back and enjoy a classic of outdoor theatre. You can buy tickets from the theatre or the venues directly.

Celebrations are planned to mark the marriage of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Egeus brings his rebellious daughter Hermia in front of the Duke.

She is refusing to marry Demetrius, her father’s choice, because she is love with Lysander. The Duke orders Hermia to obey her father or, according to Athenian law, she must face death or enter a convent. Hermia and Lysander decide to elope that night. They confide their plan to their friend Helena and she, in love with Demetrius and hoping to win his affection, tells him of the plan. That night, all four lovers steal away into the forest.

A group of Athenian tradesmen, led by Peter Quince, are planning to perform a play, ‘The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe’ in celebration of the Duke’s wedding. They decide to rehearse in the same forest.

Oberon and Titania, fairy rulers of the forest, have quarrelled over Titania’s refusal to give up her boy page to Oberon. He sends Puck to find a magic plant, the juice of which, squeezed on the eyes of someone asleep, will cause them to fall in love with the first creature they see on waking. Oberon uses the juice on Titania and she falls rapturously in love with Bottom, one of the tradesmen who has been bewitched by Puck. Oberon also tells Puck to use it on Demetrius, so that he will fall in love with Helena, but Puck, mistaking the two Athenian youths, uses it on Lysander instead, who promptly falls in love with Helena…

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Play description

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a classic and much loved text by William Shakespeare. Written around the late 1500s, like most Shakespearean texts, A Midsummer Night’s Dream stands the test of time; the narrative is almost timeless and it is still performed regularly to this day.

The story is about four Athenian “lovers” who are all in love with one another; Hermia and Lysander are in love but Hermia’s farther, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius who also loves her. Left behind is poor Helena, who has a deep and unrequited love for Demetrius. As Hermia and Lysander run away together to a nearby forest on the eve of a big Athenian wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta. Demetrius follows the object of his affection, as does Helena.

Chaos ensues as the escaped lovers are set upon by magical forces dwelling in the woods. As a result of a magic potion, the lovers fall for different women.

Also affected by the mischevious woodland spirits are “the Mechanicals”, labourers from Athens who are practicing a play for the royal Athenian wedding.

Hilarity, sexuality and desire are key themes in this whimsical text by Shakespeare.

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Observations

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