Magic and mayhem rule once more in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (one in the series of Silly Shakespeare for Students) as rewritten in rhyming couplets by Paul Leonard Murray, with the help of members of the Belgrade English Language Theater, of which he is the director. In his prefatory summary, Murray asserts that their version is “very close to the original in terms of plot, characters, and narrative.” All that has been added is a brief introduction by the overseeing narrator and, so as to simplify the plot and characterization, certain of the minor fairy characters have been combined into the part of Fairy. Otherwise, the play, in context, setting, and development, closely resembles the original comic masterpiece, dominated by the theme of falling in and out of love, subject to the misalliances resulting from the administration of a magic potion to prospective lovers in a wood adjoining the regal court of ancient Athens.

I thoroughly enjoyed the care taken by Paul Leonard Murray in rendering the Elizabethan text of the drama A Midsummer Night’s Dream highly palatable for English as a Foreign Language cast members and audience. The rollicking humor of William Shakespeare’s somewhat bawdy play is retained despite the simplification of the text, and the innate rhythm of the English language still dominates the script. Murray’s flexibility is shown in him encouraging the cast to ad-lib where they feel that doing so will free performing the work from unnecessary restraints. As he states in his helpful forescript on playing style: “Overall, this version should be fun to play and watch.”

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Silly Shakespeare for Students) is a work of adapted drama for educational purposes which was penned by author Paul Leonard Murray alongside the original text and ideas of playwright William Shakespeare. As the series title suggests, the text aims to take the central storyline of the classic tale of four lovers lost in the Athenian forest and present it in a fun and accessible way, and hopefully, one which helps students to learn the nuances of the story and characters a little better. This version of the play still contains all of the confusion and bemusement of the lovers and the fairy folk toying with their lives but is reduced to an hour in playing time for classes to act it out.

Author and educator Paul Leonard Murray has crafted a great introduction to the wit and wisdom of William Shakespeare in a fully accessible fashion for the modern age. Whilst I adore the classic language of the bard, it’s not every child’s favorite in the classroom, but having it introduced in this shortened and simplified version allows students to understand the storyline and characters better before tackling the full-on text. I also really appreciated the fact that much of the rhyme and rhythm of the original text is kept in place so that it still feels true to the bard’s lyrical style. Many of the rewordings play into the new couplet rhyme scheme beautifully, and the incidents are indeed as funny as ever. Overall, I would highly recommend A Midsummer Night's Dream (Silly Shakespeare for Students) for classrooms worldwide.