One of William Shakespeare's most famous and frequently performed works, A Midsummer Night's Dream, is on stage at the Quirino Theater, directed by Daniele Salvo.
Written between 1595 and 1596 and published in 1600 by the great English playwright, the comedy, is steeped in the folkloric tradition of medieval superstitions from which the author draws. Set in a forest, a place of mystery, bewilderment, and enchantment, of invisible presences, fairies, goblins, and mischievous sprites, it is a story of feelings and passions, intrigue, jealousy, and magic potions that draws inspiration from and reinterprets the models of classical comedy by Plautus and Terentius. The work thus draws a clear contrast between the world of the woods, representing a parallel reality governed by nature, and the rationality and law that dominate the human world. The world of art, which brings the other two together and connects them, serves as a bridge between real life and the magical and fantastical world.
The play features three distinct stories, which converge and intertwine toward the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Lysander and Demetrius, young Athenians, are in love with the same woman, Hermia. However, she loves only Lysander, while her friend Helena is in love with Demetrius. Hermia's father, Egeus, however, demands that his daughter marry Demetrius; so the girl flees into the woods with Lysander, followed by Helena and Demetrius. The two couples soon become lost in the darkness and their amorous skirmishes. Meanwhile, Oberon, King of the Elves, and his wife Titania, Queen of the Fairies, arrive in the same woods as the two couples: they have come to attend the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, which will take place shortly. The plot is further complicated by the general turmoil caused by the mischievous elf Puck who, with his magic dust, will make everyone fall in love with the wrong people, until the final denouement and resolution of the story.
A show therefore focused on the constant and inevitable conflict between reason and instinct, between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, and on the ever-timely reflection on how these two aspects must necessarily coexist in humanity.
With Melania Giglio and Martino Duane; translation and adaptation by Daniele Salvo, Melania Giglio, and Marioletta Bideri; sets by Fabiana Di Marco; costumes by Daniele Gelsi; music by Patrizio Maria D’Artista.
Photo: Quirino Theater Facebook official page
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