Episode 064: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Emma Smith

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

A Midsummer Night's Dream has all the ingredients of classic romantic comedy: a magical setting, a merry-go-round of earnest young lovers, a fairy King and Queen, and a troupe of hapless comic actors, all given a supernatural spin in the course of a single moonlit night. But is the dream-like world of the wood outside Athens as benign a place as we imagine?

As we record this episode a new production of the play is part of the Summer season at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, with Michelle Terry giving an outstanding performance as the sardonic sprite Puck.

My guest to help explore Shakespeare's wondrous 'visions' is Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford.