About this audiobook

Together with The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most magical plays. One night, two parties creep from Athens into the surrounding forest. One party includes sweethearts Lysander and Hermia, fleeing from Athenian law and the disapproval of Hermia’s father to get married. In pursuit is Demetrius, the suitor of Hermia favored by her father, and the doleful Helena, formerly affianced to Demetrius. Six tradesman (the “rude mechanicals”) make up the other party. They hope to present a play at the upcoming nuptials of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and are seeking a private place for rehearsal. Surveying these disparate interlopers are the forest fairies, whose King Oberon and Queen Titania are engaged in a ferocious marital dispute. A magical love potion throws all into disarray. Attachments are disrupted, new ones are formed—but finally, conjugal harmony is established between lovers. In the last act the “rude mechanicals” win their chance to present their clumsy dramatic piece to the amusement and satisfaction of the aristocratic audience.

Audiobook details

GenreLiterary Classics

Length2 hrs 17 mins

Narrated bya full cast, Linda Barrans, Emma Faye, Mark Crowle-Groves, Kendra Murray, Blaise Doran, Tom Saer, Claudia Anglade, Gary MacFadden, Marty Krz, P. J. Morgan

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateJun 6, 2023

LanguageEnglish

About the author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.View all by William Shakespeare