A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
A very famous play... A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (in German Ein Mittsommernachtstraum, in French Le song d'une nuit d'été). I read it in English where it contained 90 pages. Girls and Boys (Age????).
There's going to be quite the traffic in the forest on a midsummer night. While Oberon and Titania prepare the dirty tricks they want to play on each other, Lysander and Hermia plan to use this route to flee their families to be together… followed by Demetrius, who wants to be with Hermia, and Helena, who's in love with Demetrius. When a group of actors plans a rehearsal at the very same place, the chaos is complete. Because the magic of fairies changes everything...
Very nicely done! I actually pity Helena. She's too altruistic towards Demetrius, but apart from that, she isn't responsible for her pain. Seriously, that poor girl. She's to be pitied much more than Hermia. All the time, she wanted Demetrius and, as I imagine, it's not explicitly said, hated Hermia out of jealousy. Then, suddenly, Demetrius and Lysander, who fought over Hermia now fight over her... I would have felt played as well.
Demetrius himself is interesting as well: okay, he fell in love with the wrong girl and he fights even though everything's already lost. But that also shows how determined he is – something he actually shares with Helena. They're both absolutely great at hanging on to an already lost love. They're staying together forever.
Lysander and Hermia are pretty flat characters in comparison. They're simply two lovers – well, after fairy magic, Hermia's also screwed. But there isn't much more about them.
As for Titania and Oberon and how they try to mock each other? They're like children! It's actually funny Titania ended up with that skunk for a time.
The skunk and his group of actors are ridiculous! I love the woman's reaction to them and their play. They really deserved it and it's funny.
The play as such is funny, but also tense and full of original ideas. It's just not always very easy to get what happens when, since the stage directions are missing. I wonder how Shakespeare has performed it...
In brief:
I give stars for characters, content, ideas, style, and humor.