What a veritable feast of poetic theatre ! This is surely the ultimate comedy of all time, composed by a giant among
playwrights, it continues to delight every new audience that 'comes across it', from the early beginnings in Shakespearian London to the modern surround sound generation enjoying the latest adaptation including Johnny Vegas as the classic clown figure of Bottom - a buffoon, as unaware of his general ignorance as he is of the Donkey's head atop his shoulders.
Starting as quite a 'dark' play, with Hermia being offered a choice of marriage to a man she doesn't love, life in a nunnery or death this is hardly what one might expect but as with all really good comedies we need that serious start (check for example Shakespeare's 'The Comedy of Errors' - his other great classic comedy - in which the sentence of death is once again pronounced in the First Act. Hmmmm. Something of a similarity here, except it's male and money motivated rather than female and love orientated).
From then on, we enter the fast paced mad-cap world of the
Mechanicals, followed by the fast paced magical world of the
fairies. Such a collection of characters and separate plots may well have defeated other playwrights, but not our giant. He weaves the three main storylines so beautifully that the reader/watcher floats along through the entire play, easily differentiating between them, even when they
clash in the woods. And what a clash it is - the four lovers
bewitched by the king of the Fairies (who is in the middle of a fight with his oh so seductive Queen), the Mechanicals (Bottom bewitched by Puck, gaining his 'Ass-head') and the Courtly band riding off the revels oblivious to the magic, but equally as bewitched by it.
Of course, the greatest of comedies must have a happy ending and this play does not fail to deliver -
despite all the ups and downs of the woods, despite the ultimatum at the beggining, despite the 'vicious' comic interludes between the young lovers ..... yes, you've guessed it .... everything turns out all right in the end, including three marriages and an am-dram play so appalingly performed by our 'rude mechanicals' it'll split your sides.
If you
haven't read it - you should. If you haven't seen it - you must.
More abstracts about the A Midsummer Night's Dream