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Home , Fairy Queen, Puck (opera)

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The Queen

Resource Pack

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Contents

Page

3-4 Plot Summary

5 Characters: The Faeries

6 Characters: The Lovers

7 Characters: The Mechanicals

8-9 Henry Purcell & The Fairy Queen

10 Creative Writing Exercise: Mischievous

11 Drama Exercise: You Spotted Snakes

12-13 Design and make a Fairy Crown

14 Magical Muddle character game

15 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Word Search

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“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by

Plot Summary

Duke Theseus and Queen Hippolyta are preparing for their wedding. , a nobleman, brings his daughter to Theseus, as he wants her to marry Demetrius but she is in love with another man, Lysander. The Duke, Theseus, commands Hermia to obey her father and either marry Demetrius or, according to Athenian Law, she must be put to death or enter a convent.

Hermia and Lysander decide to runaway together that night to get married in secret. Hermia tells her best friend Helena of her plans. Helena is in love with Demetrius (even though he hates her and loves Hermia), so she tells him about Hermia and Lysander’s plans, hoping that she might win his love. All the four lovers run away into the woods that night - Demetrius following Hermia & Lysander and Helena following after Demetrius.

Meanwhile, there are a group of tradespeople called the Mechanicals who are rehearsing a play in the same woods. They include Bottom the weaver, Quince the taylor and Flute the bellows mender, among others. The play they are rehearsing is ‘The Tragedy of ’ and it is to be performed for the Duke and Queen at their wedding.

Also in the woods are and Titania - the King and Queen of the who rule the forest. They are arguing over the care of an orphan boy, as Oberon is jealous that the boy is currently living with and being looked after by Titania. Their argument has caused disruptions in nature including making summer like winter. Titania leaves and Oberon calls his fairy servant Puck. He tells Puck to look for a magical flower called ‘love-in-idleness’ - when the juice of this flower is squeezed onto someone’s sleeping eyes, they will fall madly in love with the first person they see when they wake. Puck brings the flower and Oberon uses its juice on Titania, who wakes to fall in love with Bottom - who has just been magically turned into an ass (donkey) by Puck. While Titania is distracted by her love for Bottom, Oberon takes the orphan boy to be his henchman, very pleased that he now has what he always wanted.

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Plot Summary cont.

While this is going on, Oberon sees Demetrius and Helena arguing. Thinking he can help, he asks Puck to put some of the flower juice on Demetrius’ eyes while he’s sleeping, so that he will fall in love with Helena when he wakes. Puck makes a mistake and puts the juice on Lysander’s eyes, who wakes to see Helena and falls immediately in love with her. Puck tries to fix his mistake and puts juice on Demetrius’ eyes who wakes to see Helena and also falls in love with her. Both men now madly in love with Helena, fight over her. Hermia is very upset when she sees this and she and Helena also have an argument. To solve the mess, Oberon tells Puck to cast a fog over the woods, so that the lovers become lost and tired and fall asleep. Then Puck puts a remedy flower juice on Lysander’s eyes so that he will go back to loving Hermia when he wakes. At the same time, Oberon puts the remedy juice on Titania’s eyes so that she will go back to loving him and not Bottom. Puck also takes the donkey’s head off Bottom, returning him to normal.

The next day the lovers meet Duke Theseus and Hermia’s father Egeus. Demetrius confesses that he now loves Helena and the Duke decides, therefore that they should marry and Egeus should allow Hermia to marry Lysander. They have a triple wedding and the Mechanicals perform their very funny play!

The End!

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The Faeries

Oberon

King of the Faeries, Oberon has fallen out with his wife, Titania. Oberon wants Titania to give him a young child who is in her care, but Titania refuses. Oberon’s plans for revenge lead him to send Puck off to fetch the love-spell flower which goes on to cause so much trouble. Oberon also instructs Puck to use the flower on Demetrius, but Puck doesn’t get things quite right...

Titania

Queen of the Faeries, Titania is arguing with her husband, Oberon. She refuses to give up a young child to Oberon, and as a result Oberon enchants her with the love-spell flower. This leads to Titania falling in love with Bottom, a craftsman lost in the wood who has magically been given a donkey’s head by naughty Puck.

Puck

Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is a cheeky, mischievous fairy who serves the King of the Faeries, Oberon. He causes a lot of confusion when he uses the love-spell flower on the wrong person, enchanting Lysander instead of Demetrius. Puck also magically changes Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head, just for fun!

There are several other faeries mentioned in the play, including Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, Cobweb and Mote, who serve Titania. They are not seen on stage in our version of the story.

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The Lovers

Hermia

A young woman from Athens. Hermia’s dad, Egeus, wants her to marry a man called Demetrius, but Hermia doesn’t want to, because she is in love with Lysander. Hermia arranges to sneak away into the woods with Lysander, and she tells her best friend, Helena, about the secret plan. Once in the woods though, events take an unexpected turn!

Lysander

Lysander is a young Athenian man, who is in love with Hermia. Unfortunately, Hermia’s father doesn’t like Lysander, and wants his daughter to marry Demetrius instead. Lysander and Hermia make a plan to sneak away into the woods and travel to Lysander’s aunt’s house, where they could safely get married. However, cheeky Puck mistakenly uses the love-spell flower on Lysander, causing him to change his mind...

Helena

A young woman from Athens, Helena is in love with Demetrius. Sadly, Demetrius doesn’t feel the same way, and wants to marry Helena’s best friend, Hermia. When Helena hears that Hermia is planning to run off into the woods, she tells Demetrius, hoping this will make him like her. However, Demetrius goes into the woods after Hermia, and Helena follows him, still trying to gain his affection. When she later finds both men declaring their love for her, she doesn’t believe they mean it!

Demetrius

A young Athenian man, Demetrius wants to marry Hermia, even though Hermia wants to marry Lysander instead. When Helena tells him that Hermia and Lysander have run off into the woods, Demetrius goes after them. However, once in the woods, Oberon, King of the Faeries, sees Demetrius being mean to Helena. Taking pity on Helena, Oberon instructs Puck to use the love-spell flower to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. Unfortunately, the mischievous Puck doesn’t get things quite right the first time...

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The Mechanicals

Quince

Peter Quince is a carpenter, and he and the other craftsmen are planning to put on a play for the Duke’s wedding day. They are going to perform a story called ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, and Quince is in charge of things, including deciding who what part everyone is going to play. Quince decides that he will play ‘The Wall’ and ‘The Lion’ himself.

Flute

Francis Flute is a bellows-mender, and Quince gives him the part of ‘Thisbe’ in their play. It’s an important role, but at first Flute isn’t too happy about playing a girl. In the end, he accepts the part, and does a pretty good job too!

Bottom

Nick Bottom is a weaver, and is a very loud, over-confident fellow. Quince decides Bottom will play the part of ‘Pyramus’ in the performance. During rehearsals for the play, Bottom gets separated from his friends and the cheeky fairy Puck magically transforms Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head! When Bottom’s friends see him, they run off, but Titania, Queen of the Faeries has been enchanted by the love-spell flower and has a very different reaction when she sees Bottom...

They are referred to as ‘rude mechanicals’ because ‘rude’ means they are lower or working class, and ‘mechanicals’ means that they are common working men. There are several other mechanicals mentioned in the original play, including Snug, and . They do not appear in our version of the story.

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Henry Purcell: The Fairy Queen

British baroque composer Henry Purcell published The Fairy Queen in 1692, three years before he died at the age of 35. This semi-opera was loosely based on Shakespeare’s much loved comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Purcell did not directly set Shakespeare’s text, instead he used a libretto adapted by an anonymous writer. In the premiere performance at the Queen’s Theatre in Dorset Garden, Oberon and Titania were played by children as young as 8 or 9 and several of the fairies were also played by children.

What is the role of music in theatre?

Music is a very useful theatrical device. It can set the mood of a scene, represent different characters and transport us to various different times and places. Are we in enchanted woods or a royal palace? Is something good or bad happening? A Midsummer Night’s Dream offers any composer a wonderful range of characters, places and emotions to portray. In our adapted production you will hear songs performed by soprano (the highest female voice) Katy Hill and bass (the lowest male voice) Stuart Young, as well as some instrumental ‘interludes’ played on a large plucked string instrument called an archlute. Sometimes the archlute will accompany the singers as a continuo instrument, filling out the harmony beneath the solo melody. At other times, it will play solo instrumental music used to connect scenes and entertain the audience while the actors prepare for the next scene.

Exercise:

Part 1: Read the texts below and before you listen to the songs try to guess what each of them will sound like. Will they be fast or slow? Loud or soft? Happy or sad? Sung by soprano or bass?

Part 2: Listen to each song on YouTube and compare them to your predictions? Do they sound as you expected? If not, how did they differ?

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Sleep (Act 2) Hush, no more, be silent all: Sweet repose has closed her eyes, Soft as feathered snow does fall! Softly, softly steal from hence. No noise disturb her sleeping sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37bfgnt3N48

Sing while we trip it (Act 2) Sing while we trip it upon the green; But no ill vapours rise and fall, Nothing offend our Fairy Queen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-PWRm9F-CA

Winter (Act 4)

Next Winter comes slowly, pale, meager and old, First trembling with age, and then quivering with cold; Benumbed with hard frosts, and with snow covered o’er, Prays the sun to restore him, and sings as before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnkj34C7M4w

They shall be as happy as they’re fair (Act 5) They shall be as happy as they’re fair; Love shall fill all the places of care. And every time the sun shall display His rising light, It shall be to them a new wedding day, And when he sets, a new nuptial night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxhbxrY6Gk8

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Creative Writing: Mischievous Puck

Puck is a very mischievous fairy or ‘’ who serves Oberon, King of the fairies.

While he is supposed to do what Oberon tells him at all times, he is very cheeky and enjoys a good practical joke. We learn from one of Titania’s fairies that Puck has been known to play annoying tricks on people in the nearby villages and often ruins the chores they have been working hard on. The fairy calls him a, “... shrewd and knavish sprite” and says that he often, “... frights the maidens of the villagery”.

Puck himself also brags about his naughty tricks and he tells us they make Oberon laugh. He is particularly pleased with himself when he transforms Bottom (who is one of the Mechanicals rehearsing a play in the woods) into a Donkey so that Titania will wake to fall in love with him. He tells Oberon with great glee, “My mistress with a monster is in love”.

Exercise:

Part 1: If Puck was living in our world, what kind of things do you think he might enjoy doing? What naughty mischief might he get up to?

Part 2: Write a short story about a day that Puck spends in our world and all the exciting and mischievous things does.

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Drama Exercise: “You spotted snakes…”

As the Queen of the fairies, Titania has a lot of fairy helpers, referred to as her “train”. These fairies look after Titania and protect her from anything in the forest that might do her harm. They also sing her lullabies to help her sleep, before going off into the forest to do their jobs for the Queen while she is resting. In Act II of the play, Titania’s fairies sing one of these lullabies, you will find the words to their song below.

You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, Come not near our fairy queen. Philomel, with melody Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby: Never harm, Nor spell nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; So, good night, with lullaby. Weaving spiders, come not here; Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near; Worm nor snail, do no offence. Philomel, with melody Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby.

Exercise:

Part 1: See if you can pick out all the different animals and creatures the fairies sing about.

Part 2: Now read through the song again and see if you can spot the rhyming words.

Part 3: Try acting out the song, finding different actions for all the animals and creatures. Look for the clues Shakespeare gives you about what they look like and what they are doing. Remember, this is a lullaby, so be careful to find the moments where you gently sing your Queen to sleep.

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Design and Make a Fairy Crown

Titania and Oberon are the King and Queen of the fairies who rule the forest and control much of what happens there. It is important that the audience watching the play are able to tell that these characters are royalty, just by looking at them. Since Kings and Queens are expected to wear crowns, this is a useful piece of costume to give Titania and Oberon. In our version they wear crowns like this:

Here are some more examples of fairy crowns:

Choose a template and have a go at designing and making your own crown for Titania or Oberon.

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Design and Make a Fairy Crown Templates

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Magical Muddle

Puck has been up to mischief again and muddled up the characters in the play. Can you match each character to their correct name?

Puck

Bottom

Titania

Oberon

Hermia 15