A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s quintessential examples of the connections among mythical history, dramatic art, social order, love relationships, and cosmic harmony. Quite a mouthful!
Overseen by the benevolent rulers, Oberon, King of the Fairy Realm and Theseus, Duke of Athens, the dramatic cosmos of this play truly holds in Hamlet’s phrase, “the mirror up to nature.” During the course of the play’s five acts, the realms of love, town, drama, fairy land, and true love are turned upside down and righted again.
Shakespeare addresses crucial questions relationship, storytelling, and dramaturgy as the play’s inhabitants
travel from city to forest and back again, where “all is mended.”