A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Funniest & Happiest Play Shakespeare Ever Wrote!

Directed by Susan Stapleto, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the best known of the bard’s plays. Written after Romeo and Juliet and before The Merchant of Venice, around 1595, it is ostensibly about the events surrounding the marriage of a Theseus, Duke of Athens to Hippolyta the Queen of the Amazons. Into this ceremonial period come two other pairs of lovers, young, silly and ripe for adventure. Over all this Shakespeare adds an argument between the King and Queen of the fairies, into which the lovers accidentally stray.

The resulting madcap antics are very funny and yet quite insightful into the often absurd problems of instant attraction frequently experienced by the very young and of other issues around love, jealousy and attraction.

Added to this mayhem are a group of tradies, ‘popular mechanicals’ so called, who are rehearsing a short play for the Duke and Queen. The best known of the tradies is ‘Bottom’, an overblown comedic character who fancies he can play every part brilliantly- with hysterically funny results. One wonder if the bard modelled Bottom in one of the actors in his or, more likely, a rival troupe.

The play is reputed to have been written for the wedding of a real-life Elizabethan Duke and Duchess at which Queen Elizabeth attended.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Opens on May 18th and runs until June 9th on Friday, Saturday and Wednesday nights at 8pm with matinees at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.

What: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Where: The Guild Theatre Rockdale

When: May 18 – 9 June

To Find Out More & To Book Online Click Here