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A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Research Moodboard
LILYERTLE JAN 08, 2019 11:36AM

Act 2 Scene 1: Songs that show Helena’s
emotional state throughout this scene
Context:  Say You Love Me - Jessie Ware 0.24
Helena following Demetrius through the woods.
Demetrius is just trying to get rid of her.
Helena is confessing her love for him and telling him all
the lengths she would go to for him to just let her stay
with him.
Stay - Rihanna solo version 0.35
“Not really sure how to feel about it” 
She’s so overwhelmed with love for Demetrius that
throughout this scene she switches between blaming him for
her feelings and then herself.
“Round and around we go”
She always nd her way back to him. They’ve been through
this before when she rst gave him her heart and he loved her
too, then he got bored with her loving him and fell for Hermia.
This shows how she hopes history will repeat itself and he will
love her the same way he did before.
“He said If you dare come a little closer” Demetrius telling
Helena to leave him alone.
Act 2 Scene 1 - Songs that show Helena’s
emotional state throughout this scene
“Heart’s getting torn from your mistakes”
I feel like this represents Demetrius leaving her for Hermia
after making false promises to always love her. She is waiting
for Demetrius to realise that his behaviour is a mistake and
that he will run back to her. Shows how delusional and madly
in love she is. This is also shown in the line:
“All that I’ve been thinking of is that maybe that you’re mine”
Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me
by JessieWareVEVO
YOUTUBE
Act 2 Scene 1 - Songs that show Helena’s
emotional state throughout this scene
Helium - Sia 1.52
“Help me out of this hell”
In this scene she says “I’ll follow you and turn this hell I’m in
into a kind of heaven” Basically saying that Demetrius has
created this nightmare for her by not loving her but as long as
she’s with him she’ll take what she can get.

“And if you let go I’ll oat towards the sun” 

The love she feels for Demetrius will destroy her if he
continues to disregard her as nothing or leave her without
him. She says in the scene that not being able to look at him
makes her sick. 

Rihanna- Stay (Solo Rihanna Version)

by GabboCCC
YOUTUBE
 Sia - Helium (Lyrics)
by TS1
YOUTUBE

Natalie Weiss - Love Me, Love Me Not (Studio HQ)

by migueloncio2

Act 2 Scene 1 - Songs that show Helena’s YOUTUBE

emotional state throughout this scene

Love Me, Love Me Not - Natalie Weiss 1.05
“And you don’t see all I’m giving away” Character: Titania
In this scene she literally says treat me like a dog. Do whatever
Clashes with Oberon due to their strong willed and power
you want with me abuse me, try and run away from me but
hungry personalities.
just let me stay by your side. The lengths she would go to to
Breaks the male dominant stereotype, which would have been
keep Demetrius in her life are humiliating and outrageous and
a shock to a Shakespearean audience.
here she’s trying to get Demetrius to manipulate and use her
Portrayed as elegant and glamorous or vibrant and strange, to
just so he can be near her. 
show her determination to stand out and seeking for
attention.
“Stop being so afraid to let our love become more”
Dramatic contrast in her hatrid for Oberon to her undying
Basically she’s trying to convince herself that Demetrius may
love for Bottom, after having the love potion used on her.
still love her the way he did once before, and is just being too
Battles of strong wills, feminine characteristics and then
stubborn to admit it. 
comedic, lustful relationship with bottom as a donkey.

“I’m not running and I’m not leaving today”

Helena’s thoughts: You’re not getting rid of me.
You can treat me in the worst way possible and fall in love
with my best friend and dangle it right in front of me and I’m
still not going anywhere.

“There’s only so much I can do”

Angry shift in the song which re ects the scene, where Helena
starts blaming Demetrius for her being so in love with him.
 Character: Egeus
Set in his ways.
Traditional.
Harsh.
Overpowering of his daughter Hermia, refuses to accept her
growing independence.
Shows the sexist divide back in Shakespearean times, fathers
having control of their daughter’s future. Severe lack of
freedom for women. Hermia is contrasting in the sense that
she is not afraid to break this stereotype, as she refuses to let
her father to choose her heart. 
Egeus will even threaten to put his daughter to death or send
her away forever to a convent, which shows his love of power
over care for his own blood.

Character: Oberon
Master of the fairies.
In a relationship with Titania.
Oberon can be interpreted in different ways, such as
compassionate in feeling sorry for Helena and goes out of his
way to make sure the lovers are together, on the other end he
only helps the lovers after getting a laugh out of it. He enjoys
the humiliation of the lovers and the entertainment, which
may be why he keeps Puck as his servant, as he enjoys his silly
and mischievous behaviour.

Character: Hippolyta
Queen of the Amazons.
Shakespeare used her from olden myths.
Despite her being overthrown by Theseus and is expected to
be an unwilling bride, she is willing and irting.
Challenges Theseus in his ways.
Submissive.
Mythical.
Connection to the fairies. Helena is in love with Demetrius and resents Hermia’s beauty.

Hermia tells Helena their plan to run away and wed.

Helena plans to tell Demetrius of the lovers plan to elope

thinking he will be grateful.

Planning a play for the Duke and Duchess

Bottom - Arrogant, Extremely con dent in his acting ability
Flute - Annoyed at playing a female
Snug - Under-con dent
Plan to meet in the forest the next night

Introduced to Puck and fairy, talk of the King Oberon’s party

that evening and not letting the queen near the occasion as
she stole a child from an Indian King, causing Oberon to be
jealous as he wants the child for himself.

Titania and Oberon hate each other.

Titania is in love with Theseus and Oberon is in love with his
Character: Theseus bride Hippolyta.
Heroic site of Athens. Their argument has caused bad things to happen in their land,
Engaged to Hippolyta after defeating her in battle. rotting of crops, air is lled with diseases and cold frost is
Represents power as the Duke spread.
Breaks the stereotype that he is cruel and overpowering to his
bride, but he is courtly and noble. Oberon sends puck to retrieve a magical ower that forces a
Dominant. person to fall in love with the next living creature he or she
Ruled by love, all he wants is to marry. sees. He plans to use it on Titania in an attempt to trick her
Respects his bride to be’s power. into giving him the child. 
Represents the law of Athens.
Helena follows Demetrius into the forest and confesses again
her love for him while he dismisses her. 
Oberon over hears and vows that he will soon be the one
chasing after her.

Puck returns with the ower and Oberon keeps some for
Titania and then demands he pours some on Demetrius’s eyes
so he falls in love with Helena.

Oberon pours the potion on Titania’s eyes.

Hermia and Lysander wondering if the woods lost stop to take

a nap.

Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and pours position

A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Synopsis onto Lysander’s eyes.
(Notes)
Demetrius leaves Helena alone in the woods 
Hermia is in love with Lysander but her father, Egeus, is
forcing her to marry Demetrius and seeks Theseus (the duke’s)
She nds Lysander sleeping.
guidance. 
Lysander awakes to Helena’s face and instantly falls in love
with her.
Lysander and Hermia create a plan to meet in the forest
Helena thinks Lysander is mocking her as she believes she is
tomorrow night and run away to marry in secret.
not pretty enough to earn Demetrius’s love.
Lysander hates Hermia and sees her as a mistake.
Hermia awakes to Lysander gone.
Bottom, Quince and the actors rehearse in the woods, while
Puck watches them unknowingly.
Bottom exits and returns with puck. Bottom has a donkeys
head instead of human head.
The actors ee in fear and puck chases after them, leaving
Bottom confused as to why everyone ran away from him.
Bottom thinks his friends are playing a joke on him as one by
one they comment on his exterior.
Bottom sings a song and awakens Titania who falls in love with
Bottom at rst sight(donkey).
Titania refuses to let Bottom leave the forest and orders her
fairies to become his servant.
King Oberon meets Puck, and Puck tells him of the events of
that day. The rehearsal, turning the actor playing Pyramus
(Bottom) into a donkey and Titania falling in love with him
when she awoke.
Hermia and Demetrius enter and Hermia accuses Demetrius
of killing in Lysander in his sleep, as he has disappeared.
Hermia leaves in anger and Demetrius stops to sleep in his
sadness.
Oberon comes to the realisation that Puck has put the love
potion on the eyes on the wrong man (Lysander instead of
Demetrius). Oberon demands that puck nds and brings back
Helena so that he can put the potion on the eyes of Demetrius
so he can fall in love with her.
Lysander is still declaring his love for Helena much to her
disbelief.
Demetrius and awakes and lays eyes on Helena falling in love
with her.
Helena believes that Lysander and Demetrius are both ganging
up on her and are competing for Hermia’s love.
Lysander thinks Demetrius is being cruel as he believes he is
still in love with Hermia.
Hermia enters and is dismissed by Lysander much to her
confusion, as he claims that he now hates her.
Helena thinks that Hermia is also joining in on her playing
tricks on her and accuses her of trying to destroy their
friendship, much to her surprise.
Hermia thinks Lysander is teasing Helena as he declares his
love for her.
Demetrius and Lysander argue over who loves Helena more
and Lysander challengers Demetrius to a duel.
Lysander insults Hermia as she tries to stop him from
ghting. 
Hermia blames Helena for Lysander’s sudden hatrid towards
her.
Hermia and Helena argue and Helena seeks the protection of
Demetrius and Lysander, still suspicious that the three of
them are teasing her. 
Demetrius and Lysander mock Hermia and leave to duel each
other for Helena’s love.
King Oberon scolds Puck for his mistakes and tells him to cast
a fog/ darkness over the forest so Demetrius and Lysander
loose each other. He also tells Puck to imitate each other’s
voices to lead them in different directions and tire them out
so much that they “sleep like the dead”, then pour a new
ower potion into Lysander’s eyes that will erase his love for
Helena.
Puck leads Demetrius and Lysander astray from each other, as
he mimics their voices.
Demetrius, Lysander, Helena and Hermia fall asleep.
Puck pours the reverse potion onto Lysander’s eyes. 
Titania is fawning over Bottom as the fairies run about as his
servants. Bottom and Titania fall asleep.
Oberon enters, and announces that he convinced Titania to
give him the child after taunting her so much, he pours the
reverse potion into her eyes, now having what he wanted all
along.
Titania awakes, disgusted by Bottom (donkey).
Puck removes Bottom’s donkey head.
Titania and Oberon now at peace with each other.
Hippolyta, Theseus and Egeus come across the four lovers
sleeping on the ground.
They are woken up by the hunters ordered to blow their
horns.
Lysander admits to Theseus that he was planning to leave
Athens with Hermia to escape the law so they could marry. 
Egeus demands that Theseus punishes Lysander for his crimes
and tries to encourage Demetrius to join him in his anger,
however Demetrius says that his love for Hermia has melted
away and he is now in love with Helena. 

Theseus overrides Egeus’s wishes and declares that the

couples will marry alongside him and Hippolyta today.

The four nd the events hard to recall as if they were a dream.

Bottom awakes back to normal and confused from what he

thought he dreamt, and returns to his cast who are getting
ready to perform their play.

Theseus, Hippolyta and the two other couples sit down for
entertainment and watch the Pyramus play starring Bottom.
Which has already created a reputation for its dreadful acting
and it being so badly written. Theseus is very unimpressed
with the quality of the play and the actors and frequently
comments on his outrage. 
The play ends much to everyone’s happiness and the friends
all go to bed.

Oberon and Titania leads fairies in song and dance in

celebration.

Puck concludes the play with a goodnight and declaration that

this story was no more real than a dream.

Helena - 24 Lines that show the

character’s values/ morals/ status
“Demetrius loves you fair. O happy fair!”
“You’re the beautiful one as far as Demetrius is concerned. Oh,
you’re so lucky!”

“Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, The rest I’d
give to be to you translated”
“If the world were mine, I’d give it all up - everything except
Demetrius- to be you”

“The more I love, the more he hateth me”

“The more I love him, the more he hates me”

“Through Athens I am thought as fair as she”

“People throughout Athens think I’m as beautiful as Hermia”

“Love looks not with the eyes but with the eyes”
“When we’re in love, we don’t see with our eyes but with our
minds”
“Leave you your power to draw, And I shall have no power to
follow you”
“If you let go of your power to attract me, I won’t have any
power to follow you”
“Use me but as your spaniel - spurn me, strike me, Neglect
me, lose me”
“Treat me like you would treat a dog - kick me, hit me, neglect
me, try to lose me”
“And yet a place of high respect with me - Than to be used as
you use your dog”
“And yet I would consider it an honour to be your dog”  “Now just let me go quietly back to Athens. I’ll carry my
“Your virtue is my privilege”
“I rely on your virtue to protect me”
“We cannot ght for love as men may do”
“We cannot ght for love as men can”
“No, no, I am as ugly as a bear, For beasts that meet me run
away for fear” 
“No, no, I’m as ugly as a bear, since animals that see me run
away in terror”
“Oh, that a lady of one man refused Should of another
therefore be abused!”
“Oh, how awful that a lady who’s been rejected by one man
should therefore be treated horribly by another one!”
“Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?”
“Why does everyone always make fun of me?”
“These vows are Hermia’s. Will you give her o’er?”
“The promises you’re making to me belong to Hermia. Will you
abandon her?”
“If you were men, as men you are in show, You would not use a
gentle lady so To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts”
“If you were real men, as you pretend to be, you wouldn’t treat
a lady this way, making vows and promises and praising my
beauty when I know you’re really both disgusted by me”
“What though I be not so in grace as you - So hung upon with
love, so fortunate - But miserable most, to love unloved?”
“Why does it matter that I’m not as lucky or lovable as you are
and that the love I feel is unrequited”
“‘Tis partly my own fault, Which death or absence soon shall
remedy”
“It’s partly my own fault, since I followed you here. Leaving -
or dying - will soon take care of everything”
“Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? Fie, e! You
counterfeit, you puppet, you!”
“You’re going to make me mad enough to answer you? Damn
you, you faker, you puppet!”
“Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, Because she is
something lower than myself, That I can match her”
“Please don’t let her hit me. Maybe you think that because
she’s shorter than me I can take her”
“And now, so you will let me quiet go, To Athens will I bear my
folly back”
mistakes back with me”
Hermia asks what’s keeping Helena from leaving...
“A foolish heart, that I leave here behind”
“My stupid heart, which I’m leaving behind here”
“I will not trust you, I, Nor longer stay in your curst company”
“I’m not sticking around here any more. I don’t trust you”
“Shine comforts from the east, That I may back to Athens by
daylight From these that my poor company detest”
“I wish the comforting light of day would shine so I can go
back to Athens and get away from these people who hate me
so much”
“So methinks. And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine
own, and not mine own”
“I won Demetrius so easily, as if he were a precious diamond I
just found lying around. It’s mine because I found it, but I feel
like someone else could easily come and claim it was hers”
Shakespeare Is Boring, Or So We
Like To Think
SpongeBob quotes are so universal
that they never get old. That's
because "SpongeBob SquarePants" is
the one TV show that we are all guilty
of watching and have absolutely no regrets every time we turn it on.
THE ODYSSEY ONLINE
 What Creators These Mortals Be
Chances are you've either seen it or
have been in it. "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" is sort of like the
Shakespearean " Godspell " in that
sense. And not unsurprisingly, the
summer is a particularly vibrant time for productions of the
comedy, which works well in an outdoor setting - what with those
enchanted fairy- lled woods outside Athens, where lovers' woes are
mystically resolved.
NYTIMES

An Interview With Eleonore Dendy Theatre review: A modern take on

| Speak the Speech | The
Shakespeare Standard
In the great theater tradition, young
actors and artists have sought
apprenticeships for generations to
continue their education and cut their teeth in the big leagues.
Many regional theaters in the United States still offer these
apprentice positions, both formally and otherwise. For the next
generation of actors, the spots are coveted and not taken lightly.
THE SHAKESPEARE STANDARD
A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Then I saw her face, now I'm a
believer," sang Nam Nguyen, a guitar-
playing fairy in A Midsummer Night's
Dream , one of William Shakespeare's
most well-known comedies. The Victoria College Drama Society
(VCDS) opened its 2018-2019 season on Thursday night with a
dreamy performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream .
THE VARSITY

My Modern Interpretation of the Character

'It's time for a big adventure': of Hermia
Emma Rice on her opening Globe
production In a modern era I envision Hermia as an outright feminist, who
The new boss of Shakespeare's Globe isn’t afraid to voice her own opinion, in either political matters
admits she doesn't always understand or anything that she is passionate enough about. This is
the world's biggest playwright. But a mostly due to her ery and strong minded personality and her
gender-swapping Midsummer Night's Dream shows she won't be refusal to conform to social and gender stereotypes, such as
playing it safe
complying with her fathers wishes and being the perfect wife.
THE GUARDIAN
She is a rebel in this sense, which is why I can picture her as
an activist or campaign leader. I think it would also be fun to
explore her disobedient attitude towards her father, imitating
the behaviour of a cliched “moody teenager” and believing that
Shakespeare's Globe she is knowledgable about everything. I think that this
Pippa Nixon returned to the Globe to overbearing and bold outlook on Hermia would not only
play Hermia in the 2008 production of
emphasise the comedic element of the play, such as by using
A Midsummer Night's Dream, having
previously performed in The Merchant
sarcasm much like many young adults use when arguing with
of Venice. their parents, but would also have a greater juxtaposition with
SHAKESPEARESGLOBE
Hermia’s more child like manor when she is ‘head over heels’
in love with Lysander. Both of these emotions would have a
great contrast with Hermia’s later emotional state when
Lysander claims that he no longer loves her and she is left
with nothing. I would nd it interesting to explore Hermia’s
reaction to when she is humiliated and is left powerless and
vulnerable, which she attempts to hide.
“And men have broken more promises than women have ever
made” - Hermia

Ideas for Music Input: Act 2 Scene 2

Ideas for Music Input: Act 2 Scene 1

“I’ll follow you and make a heaven out of hell and I’ll die by the
hands I love so well” - Helena

Character: Helena
A young woman of Athens in love with Demetrius. Helena has
been rejected and abandoned by Demetrius who had claimed
to love her before he met her best friend, Hermia.
Consequently, Helena tends to speak in a self-pitying tone.
Moreover, she puts herself in dangerous and humiliating
situations running through the forest at night after Demetrius,
even though Demetrius wants nothing to do with her. “The more I hate him the more he follows me round” - Hermia

Character: Hermia
Egeu’s daughter. Hermia is a beautiful young woman of Athens
and both Demetrius and Lysander are in love with her. Hermia
de es her father's wish that she marry Demetrius because she
is in love with Lysander. She is usually strong-willed and
independent, refusing to comply even when Theseus orders
her to obey her father and resolved to elope with Lysander.
Hermia is also the Childhood friend of Helena.
Character: Demetrius through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest.

A young nobleman of Athens. In the past Demetrius acted as if

he loved Helena, but after Helena fell deeply in love with him,
he changed his mind and pursued Hermia instead. Encouraged
by Egeu’s approval for him to marry his daughter, Hermia
refusing to marry him does not sway his feelings towards her.

Character: Lysander
A young nobleman of Athens in love with Hermia. Although
Hermia’s father refuses to let her marry Lysander, Lysander
believes that love must conquer all obstacles, so he persuades
Hermia to run away from her home and family with him, into
the forest.
“It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream” - Demetrius 
Theme: Dreams
As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. They are linked to the bizarre,
magical mishaps in the forest. 
The theme of dreaming, or feeling as if one has been in a
dream, is noticeable when characters attempt to explain
bizarre events in which these characters are involved in. For
example when Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena awake
after the spell from the love potion has been reversed, they
question whether they were all living in reality or in a dream.

Shakespeare’s Relationship with Dreams

Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of
dreams, in how events occur without explanation, time loses
its normal sense of ow, and the impossible occurs as a matter
of course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play
Theme: Magic
The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most
bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is another element
central in the atmosphere of the play. Shakespeare uses magic
both to embody the almost supernatural power of love
(symbolized by the love potion) and to create a magical and
surreal world.

“The course of true love never did run smooth” - Lysander

Theme: Love
The dominant theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is love, a
subject to which Shakespeare returns constantly in his
comedies. Shakespeare explores how people tend to fall in
love with those who appear beautiful to them.
This contrasts with the love dif culty throughout the play.

National Theatre Reviews

"Is it no man's land after the Battle of the Somme? Is it
Bangladesh after a tidal wave? Could it be - the scuttling,
crablike gure with legs where arms should be, and vice versa,
would seem to suggest so - a pond prepared for David
Attenborough? No, it is Athens as it has been re-imagined by
Robert Lepage and his designer, Michael Levine, for the most
original Dream since Peter Brook's version two decades ago,
and the most strange and disturbing since - but there I have
no memory to match it." Benedict Nightingale, Times 11.7.92

Theme: Di culty in Love

Though most of the con ict in the play stems from the
troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of
romantic elements, it is not truly a love story. The lighthearted
tone of the play distances the audience from the emotions of
the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and
af ictions that those in love suffer. 

National Theatre Interpretation

Robert Lepage conjured up what has been described as “an
astonishing world” in his 1992 production at the Royal National
Theatre. Theseus rst appeared punting an iron bed-frame
into the centre of the muddy pool of a stage, around which the
other characters gathered for their dispute. Puck was played
by the acrobat/contortionist Angela Laurier whose heavy
French accent made her words sometimes dif cult to follow
but whose incredible agility created a truly non-human
creature.
West End Interpretation
In 2001 at the Albery Theatre, Dawn French played a female
Bottom as a member of the Women's Institute helping the war
effort in 1940s England.
The production, which locates the action in a 1940s English
manor house, received many good reviews mostly for its
comedic element and was described as “whimsically odd”.

BBC Interpretation (2016)

West End Reviews
The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer described the show as
"infectiously funny and genuinely magical".
A modern re-telling of the classic fantasy drama by William
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream holds a star-
studded cast with euphoric effects and melodramatic
storytelling. Some of this star cast includes Bernard Cribbins
as Snout, Matt Lucas as Bottom, Richard Wilson as Starveling
and Elaine Paige as Mistress Quince.

“French is ne and the production is even better, unashamedly

crowd-pleasing but also true to the spirit of Shakespeare's
great comedy."

And Benedict Nightingale wrote in The Times that French's

performance was: "funnier and jollier than many of the male
actors I've seen in the role."
 Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, Stanley
Tucci as Puck, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale,
and Dominic West as the four lovers.

Film Interpretation (1999)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 romantic comedy
fantasy lm based on the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by
William Shakespeare. It was directed by Michael Hoffman. The
ensemble cast features Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle

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