INtune - The In Series Podcast The In Series

IN Series' unique series of conversation with artist and scholars on the themes of each production continues in a digital form with this enlightening conversation with Benjamin Williamson (Orpheus), Paula Sides (Eurydice), and Andrew Albin, poet, translator, and scholar or literature, led by Artistic Director Timothy Nelson.

On the third and longest night in their playing, the fairies play out the story of four young lovers in the woods, As they sleep the fairies led by Puck, Oberon, and Titania, confuse their love with drops from the magical flower. When they wake they learn that there is no fairy tale in A Fairy Queen as they confront heartbreak and confusion. As spring breaks and the sun rises they begin to rebuild their lives.

On the second evening of their revels, Puck narrates the feud between Fairy King Oberon and his Queen Titania, who soon square. Cursing Titania and her fairy band, Oberon consorts with Puck to pick an herb which will make her, when placed on her eyelids while asleep, love the first creature she sees upon waking. Finding her asleep he administers the drops of the flower, and when she wakes she spies Bottom, with an ass's head upon his shoulders. In love she seduces him, coddles him, tickles him, and makes love to him. Oberon is broken by this and wakes his queen and they begin to heal as the sun rises around them.

In this opening episode a prologue introduces the world of fairies and the plots that they will play. First come the Mechanicals, a group of odd folks setting out to perform a play. They are led by Quince and their stay is Bottom, a stuttering fool who's ass like personality becomes transformed to reality when he encounters Oberon, the Fairy King. Now drunk and transmuted, Bottom is molested by a band of fairies and forced to recite verse to them before falling fast asleep as dawn breaks.

Finally the Mechanicals return to perform their play. Chaos mysteriously turns to comfort as fiasco becomes revelation, The fairies gather in an epilogue just before the fourth nights end, at break of day, and Puck makes amends.

An abbreviated episode on the limits of language, the usefulness of silence, and the need for noise.