A Midsummer Night’s Dream Narration
Narrator 1: When the path of true love runs smoothly, the world seems a wonderful placeall bright skies and smiling faces. Unfortunately, true love has a habit of going wrong and
when that happens people’s lives get lost too. Let’s meet our characters…
Narrator 2: Duke Theseus of Athens and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons are to be
married and their happiness spread through the whole of Athens. Theseus couldn’t wait to
marry
Theseus: I will wed thee with pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
Narrator 3: Although not everyone in the city was not so fortunate in love. Two couples
were in turmoil. Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander is madly in love with Hermia. Helena,
Hermia’s best friend, loves Demetrius. But unfortunately Demetrius doesn’t love her; he
too is in love with Hermia.
Did you get that? No? Ok let’s make it simple (pointing at characters), she loves him and
he loves her back, she fancies him, he hates her but fancies her instead. Hermia’s dad
wants these 2 to marry. There you go.
Narrator 4: Egeus comes to complain to the King that his daughter Hermia refuses to
marry the man of his choice Demetrius.
Egeus: As she is mine I may dispose of her.
Narrator 5: The king tells Hermia she must obey her father and marry Demetrius. So
Hermia and Demetrius decide to run away together through the forest. (Get in the forest
and lie down)
Lysander: If you love me, then, steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night.
Narrator 6: They tell Helena their plan and she tells Demetrius to make him like her.
Helena: Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But of that? Demetrius thinks not
so.
Narrator 7: Meanwhile, some workmen are rehearsing a play for the King’s wedding. The
organiser is Peter Quince, a carpenter. He is having trouble with Nick Bottom, a weaver,
who wants to play all the parts.
Bottom: Let me play the lion too
In the forest, Oberon, King of the fairies and his wife, Queen Titania, loved each other
dearly but had quarrelled bitterly. Oberon decides to play a trick on his wife. He orders his
wife puck to go out and pick a magic flower. If the juice form the flower touches
someone’s eyes when they are asleep, they will fall in love with the first living thing they
see when they wake up.
Oberon: Fetch me that flower, the herb I showed thee once.
When Puck gets back with the magic flower, Oberon pours some juice on Titania’s eyelids
while she is asleep.
Oberon: What thou seest when thou dost wake, do it for thy true-love take.
Meanwhile, Demetrius and Helena have followed Hermia and Lysander into the forest.
Oberon tells Puck to put the magic juice on the eyes of Demetrius to make him fall in love
with Helena. But, and this is the tricky bit so you need to really pay attention now, Puck
sees Lysander and Hermia asleep and, thinking Lysander is Demetrius, pours the juice into
Lysander’s eyes! Helena and Demtrius find Hermia and Lysander and wake them up. The
first person Lysander sees is Helena, so he falls madly in love with her and loses all interest
in Hermia.
Lysander: Not Hermia but Helena I love.
In another part of the wood the work men are rehearsing their play. The mischievous Puck
changes Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head for fun. His friends are scared and run away.
Titania suddenly wakes up and falls in love with the first creature she sees- Bottom! She
tells the fairies to do whatever he asks.
Titania: Thou art as wise thou art beautiful.
Oberon and Puck realise their mistake over Lysander so they put some magic juice on
Demetrius’s eyes. As he wakes up the first person he sees is Helena.
Demetrius: O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
Not so long ago nobody loved Helena; now both Demetrius and Lysander say they love
her! She thinks they are making fun of her.
Helena: O spite! O hell! I see you are all bent to set against me for your merriment.
Oberon is very cross with Puck for this mistake. He orders Puck to use another herb to
undo the spell on Lysander. Then Oberon feels sorry for Titania and undoes the love spell
on her too. Oberon and Titania are happy again.
Titania: My Oberon! What visions I have seen.
King Theseus is out hunting in the forest and finds the four love birds, all asleep. He wakes
them up. Demetrius tells him he now loves Helena, and she too loves him. Lysander says
he has loved Hermia all along. Everyone is happy. Although they can’t explain what
happened – it all seems like a dream.
Demetrius: Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep we dream.
Puck turns Bottom back to normal. He seems to think he also had a dream. It is Theseus
and Hippolyta’s wedding day and the workmen perform their play. Bottom is a star.
Hermia marries Lysander and Helena marries Demetrius. Oberon blesses them.
Oberon: So shall all the couples three ever true in loving be.