What happens in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?
The wedding of Theseus, Govenor of Athens, to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, is fast approaching, and a band of yokels including weaver Peter Bottom are practicing a play to perform at the ceremony.
Not everyone is so happy in love, however. Theseus hears a complaint from Egeus about his daughter Hermia, who will not marry Demetrius, the man chosen for her. Instead, Hermia loves Lysander. Even when Theseus threatens her with the death penalty, she still sneaks off to the forest by night with Lysander.
The two of them are followed by another couple - Demetrius, who is determined to get Hermia back, and Hermia's friend Helena, who is deeply in love with Demetrius despite his lack of affection for her.
In the forest, the fairy rulers Oberon and Titania are arguing because Titania will not give up an orphan child to Oberon. Determined to obtain the child, Oberon orders his servant, Puck, to fetch a flower which causes anyone touched with it to fall in love with the first living thing they see.
On Puck's return, Oberon orders him to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena, but Puck gets it wrong, and makes Lysander fall in love with Helena instead. Next, coming across Bottom and the rest rehearsing, Puck transforms him into a half-donkey creature. Titania awakes, and falls in love with this monster.
Oberon tries to sort out the mix-up with the young lovers, but succeeds only in making both men fall in love with Helena - and causing a fight between her and Hermia. Oberon then causes them all to fall into a deep sleep, from which they'll awake loving the right person.
He also takes the spell off Bottom, and makes up with Titania. Dawn breaks, and the four lovers are awakened by Theseus and Egeus, who are agreeable to their new choices.
The play ends with everyone happily married, and the yokels performing their brief, unintentionally hilarious tragedy for them all.
