Illuminations - A Midsummer Night's Dream - A guide to the 2020 plays - Amazon S3
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illuminations
A guide to the 2020 plays
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Illuminations | 1
Hippolyta: An Amazonian warrior queen
who has been bested by Theseus in war.
The two are set to be married four days
from the start of the play.
Philostrate: The master of ceremonies for
Theseus’s court.
Egeus: Hermia’s father, who is stuck in
his ways. He wants Hermia to marry
Demetrius rather than Lysander and gives
her the options of death, a convent or
marrying Demetrius.
Hermia: Hermia devises a plan to run
away with Lysander to a relative’s house
beyond the woods of Athens where they
can be together.
Lysander: He is hopelessly in love with
Hermia. Once in the woods, Lysander is
mistaken for Demetrius and magically falls
in love with Helena.
Demetrius: Demetrius ended his previous
relationship with Helena in order to pur-
sue Hermia instead. Demetrius is favored
by Hermia’s father.
Helena: Hermia’s best friend. Helena still
loves Demetrius.
Mechanicals
Nick Bottom: A weaver, Bottom believes in
his ability to act and perform any part. The
other mechanicals look to him for guidance.
Peter Quince: A carpenter by trade who
serves as the director, stage manager and
dramaturg for the mechanicals.
Snug: A joiner who plays the lion in
Pyramus and Thisbe.
A Midsummer Tom Snout: A tinker (a metalworker,
Night’s Dream
especially on household utensils) who plays
the wall.
Francis Flute: A bellows-mender who
plays Thisbe.
William Shakespeare Who’s Who
Directed by Joseph Haj Robin Starveling: A tailor who plays
Athenians Moonshine.
Notes by Isabel Smith-Bernstein
Theseus: The Duke of Athens. He has
recently returned from war with a woman
he intends to marry.
2 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Fairies All three groups cross paths in the woods. twisting path of love and interpersonal
The juice of the flower affects everyone: relationships.
Titania: The queen of the fairies. Titania is Titania falls in love with Bottom (who
as old as the woods and has great magical has been turned into an ass by Puck), The metaphor of the maze is used
abilities. She seeks to raise a changeling and Lysander and Demetrius both love throughout literature and mythology. By
child borne by one of her human ladies- Helena rather than Hermia. Chaos ensues, journeying through a labyrinth, one can
in-waiting. She has a relationship with but Puck rights his mistakes and order often find oneself; the confusion is neces-
Oberon that spans millennia. is restored. Theseus marries Hippolyta, sary in the creation of clarity. Consider your
Hermia Lysander, and Helena Demetrius. At bookshelf falling, displacing its contents
Oberon: The king of the fairies. Oberon the triple wedding, the mechanicals put in a jumbled mess on the floor. As you
also seeks the changeling boy. Oberon on their play and we are reminded of the pick up the books, each must be carefully
had been a lover of Hippolyta, but always tragedy that A Midsummer Night’s Dream examined to be re-shelved. The action of
comes back to Titania. Finding the magic could have been. The humans go to bed, sorting through the tomes reminds you
love flower is Oberon’s idea, and it is and the fairies come out to end the play. what books were there in the first place.
Oberon who takes pity on Helena’s Perhaps you devise a new way of arranging
unrequited love. An Amazing Palindrome your collection that better suits you than
what you used before. Either way, when
“I
Puck: Oberon’s servant who does his bid- am amazed and know not what the books are put back in order, they will
ding, including fetching the magic flower. to say.” So Hermia ends the never be exactly as they were before they
Puck creates the mix-up between the famous lover’s quarrel in the fell—they are changed forever. Similarly,
Athenian lovers in the woods. woods. When Shakespeare uses “amaze- disruption and disorder in life provides an
ment,” his meaning goes beyond a mod- opportunity to reexamine what was, what
ern feeling of wonder. To be “amazed” is, and what could be, leading to realiza-
The Story is to be inside of a maze—to be hope- tions. Shakespeare uses this confusion-
lessly lost and confused. In A Midsummer to-clarity theme throughout his canon;
In Athens, Duke Theseus prepares for his
Night’s Dream, Shakespeare creates a dual think of any play with mistaken identities
wedding to Hippolyta, an Amazonian
labyrinth: the literal forest maze outside and mixed-up lovers. He also commonly
woman he conquered in war. In front of
Athens, where Hermia is wandering as writes characters who leave the known to
Theseus, Hermia pleads her case to marry
she utters this line, and the metaphorical venture into the unknown in order to gain
the man she loves, Lysander. Hermia’s
father wants her to marry Demetrius,
whom he thinks is a better match. Hermia
is given an ultimatum, so she and Lysander
plan to run away. Hermia tells the plan to
her childhood best friend, Helena. Helena
is in love with Demetrius, and she tells
him of Hermia’s plan, hoping to regain
his affection.
Meanwhile, the mechanicals, a group of
artisans skilled in crafts such as weaving
and carpentry, prepare to perform a play
for Theseus’s wedding day. They settle on
a theatrical version of Ovid’s story of two
star-crossed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe.
The mechanicals decide to rehearse in
the woods, lest their play be stolen by
rival thespians.
The woods are the domain of the King and
Queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania.
The pair argue over the changeling child of
one of Titania’s ladies-in-waiting. In order
to win the argument and the child, Oberon
devises a plot with his servant Puck to
humiliate Titania by putting the juice of a
flower that causes lovesickness on Titania’s
eyes and making her fall for a monster. Last seen together onstage in 2019’s How to Catch Creation, Kimberly Monks and William Thomas
Hodgson return as Hermia and Demetrius. Photo by Jenny Graham.
Illuminations | 3
A Wedding Gift a deeper understanding of their circum- The play begins with Duke Theseus and
stances. As You Like It is a prime example Hippolyta in Athens, a world of civiliza-
There is a legend that A Midsummer of this pattern, as is Midsummer. tion and order. It would have been a
Night’s Dream was written as a wedding comfortable beginning for Elizabethan
gift for two members of Queen Elizabeth’s While the uncertainty of the maze is at audiences. The mythology associated with
court. The identity of the newlyweds has the heart of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus was familiar to Shakespeare’s
never been determined, but some pos- Shakespeare tempers it with recognizable audiences; he is a figure from Plutarch
sibilities include The Earl of Southampton touchpoints. This is a play in which the and one who dominates many books of
and Elizabeth Vernon, William Stanley very nature of love is explored through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, one of the most
and Elizabeth Vere, and Elizabeth Carey interwoven stories and mythologies. prominent sources for literature at the
and the Lord of Berkeley. While these Shakespeare combines what would have time. Appropriately, Theseus is perhaps
theories remain unconfirmed, the idea been commonly recognized elements of most famous for besting the minotaur in
of Midsummer as a wedding present is part Greek mythology and English folklore as a the labyrinth to win the hand of a prin-
of the romantic tradition of the play. secondary guide through the woods. The cess by using string gifted to him by his
unfamiliar incites confusion in the audi- beloved, so that he may always see where
There is something beautiful about the idea ence, which mimics the lovers’ experience. he had been and not get lost. By journey-
of the play being a gift. Like any good gift, The familiar provides comfort, an assur- ing through the maze and out again,
it is crafted with a great deal of care. Says ance that the play will end as expected. Theseus learned much about himself and
director Joe Haj about the wedding gift gained clarity on his new relationship. In
Midsummer, Theseus has won Hippolyta
story, “through that lens the play gets really
very interesting. Because everything in the
This is a play in in war and is determined to both marry
her and inspire love out of nothing. In this
play correlates to this idea of an entertain-
ment, a lesson, a parable for this to-be-
which the very orderly world of Athens, marriage logically
married couple. Now the themes of love nature of love is leads to love, and so Theseus is deter-
mined to make this happen.
and marriage are unified across the script
in a way that isn’t true in most Shakespeare explored through From the high court of Athens we go
plays.” Gifting a play for a wedding is gift-
ing human connection—perhaps what any interwoven stories to the rude society of mechanicals,
wedding is all about. a world of common people and
and mythologies. common things. These charac-
The gift idea has shaped how we think of ters are the group of artisans
Midsummer if we consider it for a wedding, who aspire to put on a play
especially since the mechanicals present an Yet it is the structure of Midsummer that for Theseus’s upcoming
adaptation of Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe as most clearly eases the audience in and out wedding. If the Athens
a gift for the Duke of Athens’s nuptials. The of the fantastical world of the woods. That society is recogniz-
mechanicals are all specialty artisans—they structure is a palindrome. able, then the
know how to make things of quality. While mechanicals are
they may not be the best actors, their gift A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a mirror quite familiar.
of Pyramus and Thisbe is sincere and the image of itself that meets in the middle. They represent
best they have to offer. This OSF production We begin the play in Athens, check in with the skilled work-
of Midsummer presents the play-within-a- the mechanicals, and then go into the ing class, each
play as a gift with all the best intentions. It woods. From the woods we return to the character with
is not a piece of buffoonery—although it mechanicals and then shift again, back a specific arti-
can still be humorous. The mechanicals give to Athens. The structure imposes neces- sanal craft. The
their very best to the Duke and his sary order on a play that might otherwise mechanicals’
new bride. feel chaotic. It helps shift the audience world is literal,
dexterously from a rigid “civilized” world, with some super-
into a common world, into a fantastical stition. They worry
world, and back out again. The structure their audience
also presents three different relationships will take
in different stages: that of Theseus and their
Hippolyta, where love must be found; that play
of the young lovers, who must understand too
themselves before they can understand
their partners; and that of Titania and
Oberon, where love has taken root and
grown over millennia. Each of these paths
to love reflect its world within the play.
4 | A
Title
Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Return to the Text
An audience comes to a play consciously
and unconsciously aware of hundreds
of years of theatrical tradition. There are
certain elements of all theatre—especially
in Shakespeare’s canon, with its long and
oft-produced history—that we come to
expect and which find their way into the
plays through what has come before.
Our expectations of a Shakespeare play
may stem from famous screen versions
of the piece. The 1935 film A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, featuring James Cagney
and Mickey Rooney, still looms in popular
imagination. Many audiences and artists
regard it as the standard against which
other productions are measured, with it
portrayals of Puck as a young and mischie-
vous child, the fairies as wispy gossamer,
and the play-within-a-play as mostly silly.
Director Joseph Haj.
literally, or that they will one take on magic, Shakespeare adds in Working with Joe Haj is always an engag-
be lost in their own imagi- lore and conflicting ideas from Spenser, ing experience because of his willingness
nations to the point of fear. from Chaucer, from Greek mythology, to push aside theatrical expectation and
The precautions the mechanicals from history, from different countries—all precedent to focus in on the text that
take, such as the prologue or the lion working in harmony in this forest outside Shakespeare gives us. Being a text-driven
announcing themself as an actor rather Athens. As he blends discordant elements, director opens the door to new discover-
than a lion, are prompted by their own we—along with the lovers—begin to ies within 400-year-old lines of prose and
imagination and concern. Perhaps the stumble into the maze. poetry. Take, for instance, what we know
mechanicals are the most like us, common from Shakespeare’s texts about the fairies.
people with sometimes irrational anxieties. We know that Puck has been Oberon’s ser-
vant forever. We know Puck can take many
Bottom the weaver is our lover from forms and do impossible things, such as
this group, but his love stems unnaturally run around the world in 40 minutes. So
from Puck’s enchantment. Though not after all this time, does it make sense for
introduced in this scene, the play’s four Puck to be a willing agent of mischief?
classic lovers—Hermia, Helena, Lysander
and Demetrius—are of the same world. And what about the things the text
A world of literalism and idealism. A world doesn’t tell us? It doesn’t say what
where you can make beautiful things a fairy is, or what one looks like. To
with enough effort. These lovers seek to Shakespeare, and to his audience, a fairy
create and continue love regardless of was something far more sinister than a
circumstances. skipping humanoid in translucent wings.
Shakespeare’s fairies come from a tradi-
Finally, we follow the story to its center in tion of Spenser, of King Arthur, of Celtic
the forest domain of the fairies, beings of legend. These fairies can hurt people and
eternity and endless possibility. To create have the power to destroy lives. What we
this world, Shakespeare incorporates famil- see in the text of Midsummer is a glimpse
iar myth and legend to ease his audience of such powerful entities—Oberon and
into a magical setting. Oberon’s servant, Titania—who can create and destroy, and
Puck, for instance, is lifted directly from whose personal quarrels have the power
English folklore. The magical forest world to throw nature out of joint. These are the
begins comfortably, firmly in the audi- kinds of text-based ideas Haj and the cre-
ence’s realm of expectation, reminiscent ative team have been exploring, and we
Lauren Modica, a regal Cheshire Cat in 2019’s
of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. But Alice in Wonderland, takes on double royal duty can’t wait for you to see how they mani-
from our place of comfort, Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Titania and fest on stage.
begins to break the mold. Unsatisfied with Hippolyta. Photo by Jenny Graham.
Illuminations | 5
to normal because it is logical, just as we
the audience believe the play will return to Further Reading
the world of Athens for the royal wedding.
This is perhaps to comfort the emergence Our Moonlight Revels, by Gary Jay Williams.
from the unpredictable forest, a realization This book details a nearly complete
that there is an end to the maze. We know history of Midsummer as it has changed
that, like Theseus and the minotaur, we and adapted through time. It also details
will find our way back to the beginning. popular theories, including the wedding
The lovers exit their labyrinthine dream myth, about the play and where they
out into the navigable world of civilization might have come from.
to find that they have learned a lot about
themselves and each other. They have A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arden
gained clarity as many of Shakespeare’s Edition, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri.
characters do—by leaving and returning. This edition of Midsummer is recent and
therefore includes up-to-date scholarship
At its culmination, Midsummer returns and footnotes. The introduction is not to
to where it started, in Theseus’s court. be missed!
Instead of one promised wedding, there
have been three. It seems order has A Midsummer Night’s Dream (A New
been restored at last, and Shakespeare’s Variorum Edition of Shakespeare),
palindrome is completed. But then, just edited by Horace Howard Furness. The
Al Espinosa, Banquo in 2019’s Macbeth, will as Shakespeare has blended mythology Variorums are heavily footnoted editions
once again be in the midst of “something
wicked”—but of a more playful variety as he
throughout the play, he blurs the lines that of Shakespeare’s plays that compare the
takes on the roles of Oberon and Theseus. have separated Midsummer’s three dis- various word choices and sometimes
Photo by Jenny Graham. tinct worlds. The ordered world of Athens theatrical ones as well.
and the literal and idealistic world of the
Titania and Oberon reign over a world mechanicals collide in the performance of The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser.
of chaos and possibility in the mystical Pyramus and Thisbe. And when Pyramus Spenser wrote poetry before Shakespeare
woods. The couple has been intertwined and Thisbe ends, it seems that so too does began writing plays. This epic poem
for as long as time. Of all the relationships A Midsummer Night’s Dream—but the helps gain context for all that magic and
in the play, theirs is the most mature, as it fairies return. Here, in the final moments fairies could mean to an Elizabethan
is the longest-lived, and they demonstrate of the play, all three worlds brush up audience. In reading The Faerie Queene, it
a partnership that constantly adapts as against each other, leaving the audience is also possible to see the ways in which
new challenges emerge. It is here, in the to wonder if they were ever that far apart Shakespeare both expands upon and
center of the woods and of the play, in the to begin with. Has the palindrome begun satirizes Spenser’s work.
realm of the impossible, that the lovers again? If it has, it is to remain unfinished,
confront their feelings and relationships. as Puck ends the play rather than allow-
Shakespeare sets up distinctions between ing a return to Theseus. This time, we have i
the worlds of Midsummer that make dis- The “mechanicals” put on a show in 2013’s A
been left in the middle, and we must guide
Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pictured: Jon Beavers,
coveries of self and love possible only in ourselves back out. K. T. Vogt, Catherine E. Coulson, Richard Howard
the forest of Athens. Athens itself is too and Brent Hinkley. Photo by Jenny Graham.
structured, too ordered to examine some-
thing as irrational as emotion. The world of
the mechanicals is too literal to approach
themes of the heart. In the woods, howev-
er, the lovers are aided in their discoveries
by the magic of the fairies, who interfere as
much out of boredom as out of obligation.
Having reached the center point of our
mirrored image, we are led out of the con-
fusion of the woods through the lens of
the mechanicals as they wait for Bottom
to return. We as an audience can immedi-
ately relate to the mechanicals as they dis-
miss the impossible and wait somewhat
patiently for order to be restored. These
characters believe that things will return
6 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Titania and Oberon
reign over a world
of chaos and
possibility in the
mystical woods.
The couple has
been intertwined
for as long as time.
Ted Deasy and Terri McMahon were Oberon
and Titania, respectively, in 2013’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Also pictured: Julia Hogan
Laurenson, Lionel Aaron Ward and Jada Rae Perry.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
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