FIRST HALF
Act I, Scene 1: In the city of Athens, the mighty Duke Theseus and the warrior Queen Hippolyta are getting married! They once fought on opposite sides in a war but now they are in love and getting ready for the big day. The day before their wedding, a powerful man named Egeus comes to ask for Duke Theseus' help. Egeus has a daughter named Hermia and she will not follow his orders. Hermia loves Lysander and wants to marry him but her father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius. But in the ancient city of Athens, a father was allowed to tell his daughter who to marry. Helena loves Demetrius but even though Demetrius used to have a crush on Helena, he wants to wants to marry Hermia to please Egeus. Demetrius and Lysander are rivals but Helena and Hermia are best friends. When Hermia and Lysander make a plan to run away to get married, they shair their plans with Helena. Helena tries to get Demetrius to love her again so she tells him about Hermia and Lysander running away. But instead of Demetrius being please with Helena he gets frustrated and follows Hermia and Lysander into the forest, so Helena follows Demetrius.
Act I, Scene 2: Later that day, a group of tradesmen meet at Quince's house. Bottom, Flute, Snout, Starveling, and Quince want to celebrate Theseus and Hippolyta by performing a play at their wedding. At Quince's house they choose a play called "Pyramus and Thisbe" and Quince tells them each what parts they'll play. Bottom is excited to play a leading role, Flute was hoping to also get a challenging lead but is disappointed that he has to perform as a girl. Then they all make a plan to meet in the forest that night to rehearse their performance.
Act II, Scene 1: Later that night, in the forest near Athens, a fairy named Dewdrop is sprinkling dew to celebrate the arrival of the Fairy Queen Titania. Dewdrop meets a mysterious figure who reminds her of a famous fairy named Puck, the magical helper of the Fairy King Oberon. The mysterious figure reveals he is Puck and Oberon is on his way to the forest. Dewdrop warns Puck that Titania has come to the forest to bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta the next day and will be very angry to see Oberon. Soon Titania and all of her magical fairies arrive, and Oberon arrives with his magical cane. Oberon makes Titania angry when he asks her to give him a magical child that she adopted, and Titania uses her powers to make a storm happen to show Oberon that she is strong and will not give up her child. Then her faries help her cast a magic shadow spell so Oberon and Puck can undertand how much she loves her magical child. Then Titania and her faries leave.
King Oberon decides he still wants to get the magic from Titania's adopted son, so he comes up with a plan to use a magical flower potion that makes people fall in love so she will be distracted and he can get the child from her. When the flower us crushed it makes a magical juice that can be squeezed into someone's eyes while they are asleep, the juice makes them fall in love with the very first thing they see when they wake up! Oberon sends Puck to find the magical flower.
While Oberon waits for Puck to return, Helena and Demetrius arrive in the forest. Oberon casts a spell so he is invisible and watches Helena and Demetrius argue. Oberon feels sorry for Helena because she explains how much she loves Demetrius, but Demetrius keeps rejecting her. Oberon thinks that Demetrius was mean to Helena so he decides to use some of the magic flower on Demetrius. Puck returns with the flower and Oberon magically splits it in two, so he can use the magic on Titania, and Puck can use the magic on Demetrius. Oberon tells Puck that Demetrius will be recognizable becuase he is Athenian and wearing recognizable clothing found in Athens (a toga). Oberon and Puck part ways to accomplish their missions.
Act II, Scene 2: In another part of the forest, Titania and her fairies look for a place where it will be safe for her to take a nap. The fairies sing a magical lullabye and Titania falls asleep. Then fairies spread out to keep watch and make sure no one, especially Oberon, can disturb Titania during her nap. One fairy is told to guard the bower where she is sleeping but the fairy can't see Oberon sneaking up on the bower so she leaves to guard the rest of the forest. Oberon uses the magic flower on Titania and casts the spell on her eyes while she sleeps, so she will fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes up.
While Titania is sleeping, Hermia and Lysander arrive in the forest and decide to also take a nap since they have had a long journey and will have a lot further to go the next day. Lysander wants to nap near Hermia but she wants some more distance between the two of them, and they fall asleep in the forest. Puck arrives and recognizes Lysander's clothes as being from Athens, but since Puck doesn't know what Demetrius looks like, he mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and casts the spell on Lysander while he sleeps. Puck leaves and Helena and Demetrius arrive but they don't see Lysander and Hermia becuase it is late at night and dark in the woods. Demetrius is still arguing with Helena and says some hurtful things to her then leaves. Helena takes a moment to reflect on why Demetrius is so frustrated with her and discovers Lysander asleep. Fearing he might be hurt, she wakes him up and the magic flower makes him fall in love with her right away. Helena thinks Lysander is making fun of her for loving Demetrius and so she runs away from Lysander and he follows her, leaving Hermia alone. Hermia wakes up from a nightmare and seeing that she is alone decides to try to find Lysander.
Act III, Scene 1: Quince, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling meet up in the forest, right under where Titania is sleeping. They start to rehearse their play for the wedding when Puck discovers them and watches them rehearse. Puck thinks Nick Bottom is very silly and decides to play a trick on them. When Bottom has to go off stage before his entrance as Pyramus, Puck follows and magically transforms Bottom into a donkey-man. When Bottom comes back on stage transformed it scares all of his friends and they run away screaming, but Bottom has no idea that he looks and sounds like a donkey. Bottom was a little nervous that all of his friends were screaming and running away, but then he decides they must have been playing a prank on him and he decides to wait for all of his friends to return. While Bottom waits for his friends to come back he sings a silly song and it wakes up Titania from her nap. And when she sees Bottom she falls in love with him right way, she even says he has the most beautiful singing voice - even though he sounds like a donkey. Titania calls all her fairies back and they all arrive one by one. Titania instructs the fairies to make all of Bottom's dreams come true and they all leave together.
Act III, Scene 2: In another part of the forest, Oberon is wondering if Titania has woken up and fallen in love yet. Puck arrives to tell Oberon of the trick he played on Bottom and that Titania is distracted by her love for the donkey-man Bottom. Puck also explains that he put the magic flower juice on an Athenian and is feeling very proud of himself. While they are talking Hermia and Demetrius arrive, Hermia is still looking for Lysander and Demetrius won't leave her alone. Oberon points to Demetrius and Puck realizes he put the magic juice on the wrong person and tries to sneak away before Oberon gets mad at him. Hermia thinks that Demetrius took Lysander away from her and she's very angry with him and storms off, before Demetrius can follow her, Oberon casts a spell to make him sleepy so he won't leave, and then scolds Puck for making such an arraogant mistake. Oberon commands Puck to find Helena so he can bring them together and use the magic flower on Demetrius. Oberon uses magic to keep Demetrius with him while Puck looks for Helena.
-INTERMISSION-
Act III, Scene 2: Oberon casts the magic flower spell on Demetrius, and Puck brings Helena - followed by Lysander - just in time for Demetrius to wake up and see Helena and fall in love with her too. Demetrius and Lysander start competing for Helena's love and she gets very angry at them becuase she thinks they are both making fun of her and mocking her love for Demetrius. Then Hermia arrives and is relieved to find Lysander but very confused becuase he is in love with Helena and not her. This makes Helena think that Hermia is making fun of her too. And Hermia thinks that Helena is making fun of her. All four of the lovers start arguing and fighting with each other. Their fighting is very silly and makes Oberon and Puck laugh but Oberon tells Puck that he needs to fix his mistakes. Oberon leaves Puck to use magic bring all the lovers back together, put them to sleep, and make things right again.
Act IV, Scene 1: While the Lovers sleep on the ground, Titania and Bottom and all the fairies return. Titania is making a fuss over Bottom because she still loves him and thinks he is beautiful but all the other fairies think this donkey-man looks very strange and they are tired of doing everything he wants. Eventually, Bottom falls alseep and Titania snuggles him and falls alseep again. While Titania sleeps, Oberon comes in with the magic remedy to remove the spell from her eyes. Oberon wakes Titania up and they reconcile, but not before Oberon teases her for falling in love with a donkey-man.
The moon sets and sun rises on Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding day. The bride and groom were out hunting with Theseus' assistant Philostrate and Egeus. The four Athenians discover the Lovers asleep on the ground and wake them up. The lovers cannot remember much from the night before, they all feel like they had the same confusing dream. But Demetrius declares that he loves Helena and wants to be with her, and Theseus decides that Egeus can no longer command his daughter Hermia. Theseus and Hippolyta invite Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius to get married with them later that day. After they all leave, Bottom wakes up and tells the audience about a strange dream he had, then exits to find his friends so they can turn his dream into a song.
Act IV, Scene 2: All the Mechanicals are meeting at Quince's house, hoping Bottom will return. They cannot do their play without them, and being chosen to do the play for Theseus and Hippolyta would be a great honor for them all. Suddenly, Bottom arrives and they all celebrate his return and plan to get their play ready for the wedding.
Act V, Scene 1: All three couples have been married and are looking for some entertainment before the night is over. Philostrate says there is a very silly play that could be performed for them, and Theseus decides it would be fun. Bottom and all the Mechanicals arrive to perform their play. The play is supposed to be very serious tragedy and the characters that Bottom and Flute play are supposed to die but The Mechanicals did not have enough time to rehearse or plan, so the performance ends up being very silly and gets a little out of hand. But in the end all the Athenians are entertained. After they leave, Titania and Oberon arrive and bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta together. Oberon casts a final spell for Titania to make up for all his trickery. And Puck thanks the audience for being there to witness their story. Puck invites the audience to share how they feel about the whole show by saying "give me your hands, if we be friends" which means 'if you liked this show, now is the time to applaud.'
And they all live happily ever after!