Join Michael Shapiro, esteemed Shakespearean scholar, for a presentation on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream including film clips starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline. Michael writes: “This early comedy of Shakespeare is like a four-ring circus. In ring one, he presents the framing story of Duke Theseus of Athens and Hypolita, the Amazon Queen whom he has captured and now plans to marry. Ring two features another royal couple, Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, temporarily at odds because Titania dotes obsessively on a recently orphaned human child. Another fairy, Puck, who has the power to manipulate romantic affections, makes Titania fall in love with Bottom, the lead actor of an amateur acting troupe, who, in ring three, rehearse and enact a tragic love story, with richly comic results. Puck also manipulates the denizens of ring four--two pairs of Athenian lovers, by tinkering with their romantic affections.”

For the presentation Michael recommends that you watch the 1999 production featuring Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, Stanley Tucci as Puck, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, and Dominic West as the four lovers.

Rent: A Midsummer’s Night Dream on Amazon Prime: Rent For $3.79

Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Time: 6:30PM Central, 7:30PM Eastern, 4:30PM Pacific

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free