A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream was first printed in a quarto edition in 1600 and the concrete date of its composition is around 1595-96. Unlike Shakespeare's other comedies, Midsummer Night is set in a given time and space in Athens rather than a fabricated community. In this play, Shakespeare used the characters Theseus and Hippolyta in Greek Mythology and adapted the particular setting of Athens as his social reference to build a dramatic world between magic and reality. Although Shakespeare attempted to apply the foreign civilization to compose his drama, he never did it without the notice of Elizabethan society as the social reference. In fact, the setting in the foreign community might help Shakespeare to make a comment on his contemporary society while distancing the play from it to avoid censure from sponsors and political power.

The setting of Midsummer Night is in Athens but the atmosphere and action of the play might evoke the audience the very presence of the social reference in England. Theseus' court seems to be an Elizabethan great house and the behaviors of the four lovers in the forest present a more general picture of Elizabethan love stories than Greek mythology. The design of the fairies in the forest, setting in midsummer night and travesty of love magic in the play might also reminds the audience of the country festival-May festivities. May festival refers to a custom that people in May go out to the wood and hold a celebration of nature and fairies with the maypole. Through the characters' magic journey in the wood and their return to the civilization, Shakespeare may tend to enforce the audience's sympathy and memory of the celebration (the title "Midsummer Night" also provokes the idea of "May-Day") and to contemplate the Elizabethan society and the mass consciousness in 16 and 17 century.

Midsummer Night raises questions of romantic view of love and theatrical performance in Elizabethan society even though it is presented as a mere silly comedy in the surface. Theseus' statement of wooing Hippolyta with sword and the four lovers' ideas about love can be proved problematic throughout the whole play. The play performed by the craftsmen and the idea of a play as a dream put the question to the very essence of drama. Eventually, Shakespeare not only created a popular comedy but also provided the outlook toward his society and performing art in theaters.

Designer: Chris