ACT I
Scene i: Athens. The Palace of Theseus.
Scene ii: Athens. Quince's House
ACT II
Scene i: A wood near Athens
Scene ii: Another part of the wood
ACT III
Scene i: The Wood. Titania lying asleep.
Scene ii: Another part of the wood
ACT IV
Scene i: Lysander Demetrius, Helena and Hermia lying asleep
Scene ii: Athens. Quince's house
ACT V
Scene i: Athens. The Palace of Theseus
A Midsummer Night's Dream tells a story of order and disorder, reality and appearance, and love and marriage. Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons are to be married and great celebrations are planned.
Four days before the wedding, Athens citizen, Egeus brings his daughter, Hermia, to the Duke. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius but she refuses as she's in love with Lysander. The Duke upholds Athemnian law: Hermia must obey her father, enter a convent. or face a penalty of death. Meanwhile, Hermia's best friend Helena is in love with Demetrius...Deciding to elope that night, Hermia and Lysander, confide in Helena who, in hopes of winning Demetrius' affection for herself, tells him of Hermia's plans to run away. That night all four lovers set out into the forest—Demetrius chasing Hermia and Lysander, Helena chasing Demetrius.
Meanwhile, a group of Athenian tradesmen (known as the Mechanicals), led by [Petra] Quince, are working on a play they hope to be selected to perform in celebration of the Duke's wedding. They begin to rehearse The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus & Thisbe in the same forest.
Elsewhere in the forest, the Queen and King of the Fairies, Titania and Oberon, feud over Titania's refusal to give up her page-boy to Oberon. He sends his mischievous servant, Puck (aka the sprite, Robin Goodfellow), to find a particular magic plant. Oberon plans to use this plant to both help resolve the Lovers conflict and cast a spell on Titania. The juice of the plant, when squeezed onto the eyes of someone asleep, causes them to fall in love with the first creature they see when they wake up. Oberon sends Puck to anoint the eyes of Demetrius so that he will fall back in love with Helena, while Oberon uses the juice on Titania as she sleeps in her bower...
Chaos ensues as the meddlesome Puck stumbles upon the rehearsing Mechanicals and magically transforms Nick Bottom's head into a donkey's, confuses Lysander with Demetrius and Hermia with Helena, and wreaks havoc in the forest.
Will Hermia and Lysander find their way back to each other? Will Demetrius return Helena's love for him? Will the Mechanicals' play be chosen by the Duke? Will Titania and Oberon make amends and restore the natural world?
