(This year's production will be the popular classic "Much Ado About Nothing". Until that synopsis is posted, please enjoy reading about last year's play!:)
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, by William Shakespeare...
The play opens with Theseus (area royalty), preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta. In marches Egeus (an angry nobleman), who has come to ask Theseus to settle a family dispute. Apparently his daughter Hermia has two suitors – Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus has decided his daughter will marry Demetrius, but Hermia loves Lysander and refuses to comply with her father’s wishes. Egeus points out that according to their law, a daughter must obey her father’s command in this situation. Egeus wants Theseus to rule in favor of him, and against his daughter. After reviewing the law, Theseus tells Hermia that she may have the brief time before his own wedding to consider her options, and make a choice. If she refuses to obey her father and marry Demetrius, she will have to join a convent, or face execution.
The situation seems hopeless for the young lovers in their own city, so Lysander proposes they escape during the night and head to the house of his distant aunt, to be married there. Hermia’s childhood friend Helena was once engaged to marry Demetrius (the other suitor), but when he met Hermia he dumped Helena, in hopes of gaining Hermia’s affection instead.
As Hermia and Lysander make plans to elope, a depressed Helena happens by. She wonders what is wrong with her, as both men prefer Hermia’s beauty and charm to hers!
The now hopeful lovers attempt to cheer her up and tell her their own plans to leave the city together that very night. Hoping to win Demetrius back through her love and loyalty, Helena tells him about Hermia’s plan to run away with Lysander. Demetrius continues to spurn Helena, and heads into the woods himself after his intended bride and the one she loves.
So Helena follows them all...
Also in these woods is a band of fairies including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned from India to bless the upcoming marriage of the local mortal royalty (Theseus and Hippolyta). Titania and Oberon have been fighting over a young boy that was left for Titania to raise by his own mother when she died. Oberon wants the boy to become a knight in his own service, but Titania refuses. Their disagreement has caused strife for mortals as well, because weather patterns have followed the mood of their relationship.
Seeking revenge, Oberon sends his mischievous servant Puck to fetch a secret flower for him. This particular flower has magical properties: when the juice of the flower is put on the eyelids of a being, he or she will fall deeply in love with the first thing seen upon waking. Oberon anoints Titania’s eyelids, with hopes that she will be smitten with love for something awful and wild in the forest when she awakens! Oberon then sends Puck with the flower to do the same to Demetrius, so that he will again love the adoring Helena.
Puck goes off in search of the mortal man and woman in the forest, unaware that there are two sets of people wandering about in the night. Puck sees Lysander sleeping on the ground, and mistakes him for the man Oberon has sent him to enchant. When Lysander awakens, the potion causes him to declare love and devotion to the first thing he sees—which happens to be Helena! As Puck tries to fix his mistake, suddenly the tables are turned and both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena, who believes they are all mocking her. Hermia becomes so jealous she tries to fight Helena. Demetrius and Lysander very nearly go to blows with each other over the fair Helena, while jointly rejecting the confused Hermia.
Now it happens that there is a third group of people also out in the woods this same night. Nick Bottom (a poor weaver from town) is out with his friends, rehearsing a play they hope to perform at the upcoming wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The silly, bumbling group also includes local craftsmen Peter Quince (who has written the play they hope to perform), Francis Flute (a bellows-mender), Tom Snout (a tinkerer), Robin Starveling (another poor would-be actor), and Snug (a carpenter-joiner). While out doing mischief, Puck sees the egotistical and rambling Bottom in the woods with the others, and decides to play a trick on him. Although Bottom doesn't realize it, he suddenly has the head of an ass!
Then, wouldn’t you know it, Titania wakes up and sees … Bottom (the half-donkey). The flower has done its magic, and while others can see Bottom for what he is, she is completely enchanted by his voice, his beauty, his wisdom! She calls her fairy attendants Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, Cobweb and Moth to wait on Bottom. His friends were frightened off by his changed appearance, so he stays there and passes the night as if he were truly fairy royalty!
Eventually Oberon feels bad for the trick he has played on his queen, and applies an antidote to everyone affected.
Puck then applies the original love potion to Demetrius’s eyes, and when he awakens and sees his former fiancée Helena, he falls in love with her again (as was Oberon's original intention). Titania and Oberon make peace with one another, and the fairy kingdom is also put right.
Back in town, the scene is set for a happy ending all around. Lysander & Hermia, and Demetrius & Helena will be married at the same time the royals will be. The poor band of working-class friends will finally have their big moment on a real stage (and can for one night be the great actors they have aspired to be)! They perform a fumbling, hilarious version of the classic tragedy “Pyramus and Thisbe”, and it becomes a wonderful and memorable event for all.
After the play (within the play), the newly-married couples all head off to bed for the night, and the fairies bless them with a protective charm before they retreat into the woods. Puck remains onstage, asking the audience’s forgiveness and approval, and urging us all to remember the play as though it has been but a dream…
