Ep. #9 A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

In this episode READ MORE PLAYS hosts Ricardo Frederick Evans and Jennifer Sassaman discuss the show A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare. Theme music by Kalyn Harewood, with additional music by Bob Sassaman.

Plot Overview:
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a magical comedy set in ancient Athens and actually follows three different stories that come together in the end.  The first plot thread is about four young Athenians trapped in a bit of a love rectangle.  Lysander and Demetrius are both in love with Hermia, who in turn loves Lysander but her father objects so the two plan to run away to get married in another town.  They tell Hermia’s bff Helena – who is in love with Demetrius – what they’re going to do but she decides to tell Demetrius as a way to gain favor with him.  Second plot is about a group of working-class folks who are practicing a play that they want to do for the Duke’s upcoming wedding.  Finally, the third plot is driven by a fight between the king and the queen of the fairies and how they and their fairy servants scheme to get what they want.  Everyone goes into the woods and the story goes from there. 

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Links to items referenced in this episode:
1. A full plot summary of the play can be found on the Plot Synopses page of our website: https://www.readmoreplays.com/plot-synopsis

2. Information about the analytic technique used in this and other episodes can be found in the Text Analysis page of our website: https://www.readmoreplays.com/analysis