A
Midsummer Night's Dream - The Story
Act One
Interior
Ballet studio. Midsummer Day.
Class ends and the company prepare
for a rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet. The
Artistic Director Theseus, soon to be married to Hippolyta
his Principal
Dancer, has decided it is time for her to bring her career
to a close, and to
remove her from her role as Juliet. He is encouraged by his
Ballet Master, Robin Puck, to select his protégée
Demetrius as Romeo to Hermia's Juliet. She wants
to dance the role with Lysander as they are in love. Demetrius
is also at the
moment infatuated with Hermia and has jilted her best friend
Helena. To complicate matters further, Nick Bottom, the company
carpenter, is in love with Hippolyta. The rehearsal disintegrates
and Theseus angrily calls it to a halt and the company disperses
to prepare for the overnight train journey to their touring
engagement in Edinburgh.
Left alone Hippolyta contemplates life
without dance and though Theseus
attempts to persuade her towards her new life as his wife,
she breaks from him in distress, leaving him alone in the
studio.
Puck retrieves and pockets Hippolyta's
discarded pointe shoes from the studio as the shadows darken.
Exterior
Kings Cross Station, evening.
The dancers and crew board the sleeper,
en route for Edinburgh.
Interior
The Flying Scotsman
On the train tempers and sleeping arrangements
are affected by the day's
events. The train enters the tunnel to begin its journey North
into
Midsummer Night.
Act Two
Interior/Exterior ?
Fairyland
Midsummer Night.
As Theseus sleeps, he dreams. His status
alters and he is Oberon, King of
Fairyland, warring with his Queen, Titania, mirroring the
problems of real
life. Everyone, including the audience, enters his dream.
Initially Oberon is intent on punishing Titania and sends
his henchman Puck to find the magical juice that will cause
her to fall in love with the next live creature that she sees,
preferably a wild animal!
Puck, discovering Nick Bottom in his dream rehearsing as Romeo
with the
crew, transforms him into a donkey and leads him to the sleeping
Fairy
Queen. The charm works and Titania takes the delighted donkey
to her bower,
deleriously in love.
Through the shortest night the young
couples' confusions grow as Puck
mistakenly places the love juice on Lysander's eyes who falls
instantly in
love with Helena. Puck and Oberon finally release them all
from the spell
and the Fairy King and his Queen move beyond anger and manipulation
and are lovingly reconciled.
Act Three
Interior and Exterior
The train and Edinburgh Waverley Station
Morning
Arriving at their destination the next
morning, the company awake to the new
day, sleepily recalling their dreams and leave the train for
the theatre in
wonder, at their reconciliation and new found happiness.Interior
The Theatre
Night
The audience enthusiastically applaud
the end of Romeo and Juliet, danced by
Hermia and Demetrius. The company congratulate them and happily
celebrate
the engagement of all three couples with a backstage party.
As the evening
ends, Puck gathers up the remnants of the dream.
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