My name is Kyle, and I'm here

To talk about A Midsummer Night's Dream

One of Shakespeare's most well known,

and well received comedies.

It's a tale of love, magic, and wacky misunderstandings

and a bit of beastiality...

This play has a lot going on, which coupled with

Shakespeare's heightened language can be...

Overwhelming

My goal is to simplify things for you

So...

Let's get started!

Now, Midsummer has oodles of characters,

but for brevity's sake, here are the only ones

you really need to care about

First are the four young Athenian lovers

All full of hormones, and feelings

and poor life choices.

There's the handsome Lysander,

The suave Demetrius,

The beautiful Hermia...

and Helena.

*sigh*

Hermia and Lysander are madly in love,

but Hermia's father isn't on board,

as he's already arranged for her to marry Demetrius

who, of course, is also wildly in love with her.

Helena, meanwhile, is obsessively

in love with Demetrius

but, sadly, nobody loves Helena.

Next we have the faries

living in a forest outside of Athens.

There's the fairy queen, Titania,

with her many loyal servants,

And the fairy king, Oberon,

with his one obnoxious sidekick, Puck.

The fairy king and queen once ruled together,

but have recently split up after what is essentially

a custody dispute over a small human child.

and finally, we have the Mechanicals

a group of blue-collar workers who have formed

a small theatre troup set to perform a play at the

wedding of the future Duke and Duchess of Athens.

For our purposes, the only one worth mentioning

is Nick Bottom.

A weaver, and a pompous dunce

who plays the lead role in the troupe's production

but we'll get to him later.

Are you ready for this?

Because I'm not sure I am...

*deep inhale*

Hermia disregards her father's wishes

and runs off to elope with lysander

Demetrius, having lost his would be wife,

chases after them, and Helena

being her desperate self, comes along for the ride

and before long

the four naive lovers find themselves lost in the woods

Meanwhile, Oberon, seeking petty revenge

instructs puck to enchant Titania

with a love potion that will make her

fall head over heels for the first thing

she lays eyes on.

Then, feeling pity after witnessing Helena's

failed attempts at courtship,

he orders Puck to enchant Demetrius as well.

Here's where the fun starts.

First, Puck goes to pour

pour some love juice on Demetrius, but

WHOOPS!

Since he doesn't actually know

what Demetrius looks like, he accidentally

who forgets Hermia exists, and becomes

instantly smitten with Helena.

Then, attempting to fix Puck's mistake,

Oberon enchants Demetrius as well,

meaning that both men have now fallen in love

with the once loveless Helena

Unfortunately, this leads to an insulted Helena

believing that the men have joined forces to mock her,

a furious, and love stricken Lysander and Demetrius

ready to fight to the death for Helena's hand,

and a jealous and heart broken Hermia

prepared to gouge Helena's eyes out.

So yeah...

Things didn't really go according to plan.

On the other hand, phase two of Oberon's scheme

goes off without a hitch

when Titanis wakes up, and becomes infatuated

with Bottom the Weaver

Who, by the way...

Now has the head of a donkey thanks to Puck.

So...

That happens.

ANYWAY

Hijinks are had, laughs are shared

and Oberon runs of with the child.

Mission Accomplished!

Still, there is the problem of the Athenian lovers

all trying to murder each other.

First there's Lysander and Demetrius,

which Puck solves by disguising his voice

and drawing the two men as far away

from each other as possible.

Then, there's Helena and Hermia which Helena solves

by being a coward, and running away.

Satisfied with the results of his scheme,

and tired of dealing with the Athenians

Oberon puts everyone to sleep,

restores Bottom to his normal form

and ensures that the Athenian lovers

are all with their proper mates.

The play concludes with the wedding of

the two couples, along with the Duke and Duchess

Followed by a hilarious farcical play within a play

performed by the mechanicals,

and topped off with a wonderful speech

delivered to the audience by Puck...

*gasps for air*

And that about covers it.

Hopefully, when you go to read the play

and you WILL read it.

You'll be able to use this video to help

keep track of what's what.

Thanks for watching,

and let me know what other plays

you'd like to see abridged.