The moon and moonlight play such an important role in A Midsummer Nights Dream, that I can’t help but wonder how the mystery of moonlit hide-and-seek in the woods would be conveyed in the day lit theater?  The magic of the fairies and the confusion of the mortals seems to take place almost completely at night, and I don’t think it is incidental to the comedy.

I suppose the answer is that theater requires the audience to be as much an active part of the experience as the actors. In that they must employ their imagination and believe they see what is suggested on stage.

Nonetheless, as I was reading I couldn’t help but wonder what they would have done to facilitate the illusion of a misty moonlit English forest…