A Midsummer Night's Dream E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Bedrettin Şimşek
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

A comedy in two acts.
Written by Shakespeare and developed by Bedrettin. 
The interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream takes a different approach to the essence of the original text, introducing several changes and rebuilding the play around a kind of fantasy based on strange realities such as déjà vu and disjunctive cognition, a bizarre phenomenon in dreams first identified by psychoanalyst Mark Blechner in which the dreamer recognizes the identity of a character even though the appearance does not match the identity. 
Some dialogue has been moved to be used in more appropriate situations. Some dialogue has been condensed to make it shorter, more concise, witty, and functional. New lines have been added to better define the characters, intensify the conflict, and increase the dose of comedy. The plot has also been developed by adding more intrigue, more mischief, more magic, and more humor. Always within the framework, the theme has been enriched with surprising variations. Visual and verbal elements related to dreams, love, marriage, etc. have been added to the subtext to make the play a multi-layered comedy more suitable for modern audiences.

Leseprobe

William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Bedrettin’s Version

ISBN: 9786259903910

This ebook was created with StreetLib Writehttps://writeapp.io

Table of contents

How to stage 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Bedrettin’s Version)

Characters in the Play

ACT 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Scene 11

Scene 12

Scene 13

ACT 2

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Bedrettin's Plays

How to stage 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Bedrettin’s Version)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bedrettin's Version) is not an adaptation, but a thematic development that takes up the theme with a contrasting approach. It is therefore an alternative to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, less poetic but funnier, with more conflicts, contradictions and intrigues than the original due to the hilarious variations on the theme. However, it is still Shakespeare's, as it is mostly composed of snippets - the shifted dialogues - from the original. This is the unique aspect of this version.

Previous adaptations of Shakespeare are formal repetitions that add nothing to the subject. But Bedrettin's version fills in the missing parts of the original and integrates with it. In the version, new dreams have been added to the dream that Shakespeare had. If the original is to be performed, it is suggested that this version be performed alongside it to show the possibilities of Shakespeare's text. The original and the version can be performed alternately in the same season by the same actors in a festive mood... This model can be a creative way for theaters to attract more audiences and generate ticket sales.

Characters in the Play

OBERON

TITANIA

PUCK (ROBIN)

THESEUS

HIPPOLYTA

HERMIA

LYSANDER

DEMETRIUS

HELENA

EGEUS

QUINCE

BOTTOM

STARVELING

SNOUT

SNUG

PHILOSTRATE

FAIRY

Peaseblossom

Cobweb

Mustardseed

ACT 1

Scene 1

The palace of Theseus, Duke of Athens. Theseus and Hippolyta enter with PHILOSTRATE and others.

THESEUS

Our wedding day is almost here, my beautiful Hippolyta. We’ll be getting married in four days, on the day of the new moon. But it seems to me that the days are passing too slowly—the old moon is taking too long to fade away!

HIPPOLYTA

No, you’ll see, four days will quickly turn into four nights. Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration.

THESEUS

Go, Philostrate, get the young people of Athens ready to celebrate. Sadness is only appropriate for funerals. We don’t want it at our festivities. ( Philostrate exits) Hippolyta, I wooed you with violence, using my sword, and got you to fall in love with me by injuring you. But I’ll marry you under different circumstances—with extravagant festivals and celebration.

EGEUS enters with his daughter HERMIA, and LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS.

EGEUS

Long live Theseus, our famous and respected duke!

THESEUS

Thanks, good Egeus. What’s new with you?

EGEUS

I’m here, full of anger, to complain about my daughter Hermia.—Step forward, Demetrius.— My lord, this man, Demetrius has come to my window every night and serenaded me in the moonlight to show how much he loves my daughter. Finally he captured my heart by giving me toys, trinkets, knickknacks, little presents, flowers and candies—things that can really influence an impressionable person. But this other man, step forward, Lysander.— has cast a magic spell over my child’s heart.—You, Lysander, have pretended to be in love with my daughter, making her stubborn and harsh instead of obedient. My gracious duke, if she won’t agree to marry Demetrius right now, I ask you to let me exercise the right that all fathers have in Athens. Since she belongs to me, I can do what I want with her—as the law says: I can either make her marry Demetrius—or have her killed.

THESEUS

What do you have to say for yourself, Hermia? Think carefully, pretty girl. You should think of your father as a god,. Demetrius is an admirable man..

HERMIA

So is Lysander.

THESEUS

You’re right, Lysander’s admirable too. But since your father doesn’t want him to marry you, you have to consider Demetrius to be the better man.

HERMIA

I wish my father could see them with my eyes...

THESEUS

No, you must see them as your father sees them.

HERMIA

Your grace, please forgive me. I don’t know what makes me think that., Please, tell me the worst thing that could happen to me if I refuse to marry Demetrius.

THESEUS

You’ll either be executed or you’ll never see another man again. So think carefully about what you want, beautiful Hermia. Consider how young you are, and question your feelings. Then decide whether you could stand to be a nun caged up in a cloister forever, living your entire life without a husband or children, weakly chanting hymns to the cold and virginal goddess of the moon. A married woman is like a rose who is picked and made into a beautiful perfume, while a priestess just withers away on the stem.

HERMIA

I’d rather wither away than give up my virginity to someone I don’t love.

THESEUS

Take some time to think about this. By the time of the next new moon—the day when Hippolyta and I will be married—be ready either to be executed for disobeying your father, to marry Demetrius as your father wishes, or to take a vow to spend the rest of your life as a virgin priestess of the moon goddess.

DEMETRIUS

Please give in, sweet Hermia.—And Lysander, stop acting like she’s yours. I’ve got more of a right to her than you do.

LYSANDER

Her father loves you, Demetrius. So why don’t you marry him and let me have Hermia.

EGEUS

It’s true, rude Lysander, I do love him. That’s why I’m giving him my daughter. She’s mine, and I’m giving her to Demetrius.

LYSANDER

(to THESEUS ) My lord, I’m just as noble and rich as he is. I love Hermia more than he does. And beautiful Hermia loves me—which is more important than all those other things I’m bragging about. Why shouldn’t I be able to marry her? Demetrius—and I’ll say this to his face—courted Nedar’s daughter, Helena, and made her fall in love with him. That sweet lady, Helena, loves devoutly. She adores this horrible and unfaithful man.

THESEUS

I have to admit I’ve heard something about that, and meant to ask Demetrius about it, but I was too busy and it slipped my mind.—Anyway, beautiful Hermia, get ready to do what your father wants. Come with me, Hippolyta. How are you, my love?—Demetrius and Egeus, come with us. I want to discuss something that concerns you both.

EGEUS

It is my duty and my greatest pleasure to accompany you.

They exit except for Lysander and Hermia.

LYSANDER

What’s going on, my love? Why are you so pale? Why have your rosy cheeks faded so quickly?

HERMIA

Probably because my cheeks' roses needed rain, which I could easily give them with all the tears in my eyes.

LYSANDER

Oh, honey! Listen, in books they say that true love always faces obstacles. And the path of true love is never without thorns.

HERMIA

What hell, to have your love life determined by someone else!

LYSANDER

You're right. So, listen, Hermia. I have an aunt who is a widow, who’s very rich and doesn’t have any children. She lives about twenty miles from Athens, and she thinks of me as a son. I could marry you there, gentle Hermia, where the strict laws of Athens can’t touch us. So here’s the plan. If you love me, sneak out of your father’s house tomorrow night and meet me in the forest a few miles outside of town. You remember the place. I’ll wait for you there.

HERMIA

Oh, Lysander, neither death nor life will stop me from coming. I give you my word, I’ll be there tomorrow.

LYSANDER

Keep your promise, my love. Look, here comes Helena.

Helena enters

HERMIA

Hello, beautiful Helena! Where are you going?

HELENA

Did you just call me “beautiful”? Take it back. You’re the beautiful one as far as Demetrius is concerned. Oh, you’re so lucky! Sickness is contagious—I wish beauty were contagious too! I would catch your good looks. Oh, teach me which tricks you used to make Demetrius fall in love with you.

HERMIA

I frown at him, but he still loves me. The more I hate him, the more he follows me around.

HELENA

And the more I love Demetrius, the more he hates me.

HERMIA

It’s not my fault he acts like that, Helena.

HELENA

That’s true, it’s your beauty’s fault. I wish I had a fault like that!

HERMIA

Don’t worry. He won’t see my face ever again. Lysander and I are running away from here. Before I saw Lysander, Athens seemed like paradise to me. So what powers my beloved had that he turned this heaven into hell.

LYSANDER

Helena, we’ll tell you about our secret plan. Tomorrow night, when the moon shines on the water and decorates the grass with tiny beads of pearly light, we plan to sneak out of Athens.

HERMIA