Book Report: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Drömmer du om en nymålad fasad eller kanske bara en nyåljad terras? Sluta drömma! Med butiker i hela Sverige hjälper vi dig med allt från val av färg och kulör till terrassålj för altan omöbler. Välkommen in till Alkros Studio! Jag skulle ju köpa några nya palpstrält i lagret. Det kanske blev lite mer grejer. De hade ju allt, hade en skribord, jag köpte en sån här, och kontorstolar, och sen hade de en skitsnyggkontainer och massa bra.

Vi har inredning för hela arbetsplatsen. Välkommen till AI-produkten.

Well hello and welcome everyone to another edition of the Book Report. I am Adam, joined as always by our master teacher, Caitlin. Hi. Introduce yourself. Exactly. Whatever weird flack. Sometimes it's flatulence, but it's really how I live my life. Vocal stems and all. It's your it's what you're able to do. It's it's like the the perks of being the the master teacher. You can introduce introduce yourself however you want.

Yeah.'Cause I'm not the host right now. You are. I don't have to have any decorum. And uh it will be not not much heavy lifting tonight. I plan on coasting this evening, but it'll be a fun conversation and we're so glad that you're here to listen along. So we're here to talk about a Midsummer Night's Dream by Bill

Shakespeare. Billy Shakespeare This has been a long time since we've done a book report. I think I was looking I don't I don't think we've done one since like last summer. God, a lot of life has happened since then. A lot of life has happened. Uh Yeah, what what even book was that? I don't know, what what was the previous book before this? What Midsummer Night Stream? Was it Uh um did we do Jekyll and Hyde? Yeah. Did we do a w did we do a book report for Jekyll and Hyde? We did.

Was was like the Arch nemesis or whatever. Yeah. That was a little game. Mm-hmm. Long, long, long, long, long, long time ago. Metzer Night's Dream went on for a bit. We also were we also were doing like one episode a month. Yeah, I was about to say there was one time where we went six weeks in between it. We slowed down. Mhm. If you're a part of the oh ma'am fam, you're in the no. If you know, you know why things have been slower but Oh, I'm I mean I'm I'm comfortable with saying that. Like

Just this past August. So what was it, like six months ago? Uh back in August. No, no, no. That'd be like eight, seven, eight months. Whatever it was. Uh I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Uh and so been undergoing treatment for it. Successfully so so f so far. We're still in the midst of it, but Uh, that did uh slow things down quite a bit. Yeah. Uh nothing nothing like Nothing like a bitch called chemo to give you the right brain fog to not really to render you

kind of a useless DM at times. So uh the idea of world building and writing did not come naturally during that time. Yeah, Aaron and Kimmy were kind enough, I mean obviously, just to let us kind of slow down a little bit. Mm-hmm. think when cancer c when when when the big C word comes into your life you gotta everything kinda slows down a little bit. Yeah to kind of reevaluate and we love doing this show. That's why we continue doing it. It was a

getting to play along with our friends and also engage with our listeners. That was such a respite, a little kind of a uh an escape in some ways away from cancer and but also sometimes we didn't have the energy, we didn't have the spoons, as some people say, to uh to do this. But I think we're ramping up. So we finally we finally finished to mid summer night stream. Yeah. Uh time went just like in the Faye Wild where a day there is like a week or like it just

It time means nothing. What is time? In the Faye Wild and with Cancer, what is time? What is time? What is time? Uh yeah, but well thank you for sharing that, Kate. I don't want to throw your business out there. Not our business out there, but Yeah. Uh we've the the people who do know who've reached out, we really appreciate it and we're keeping some information and some stuff close to the cliff of the vest, but also, you know, we love engaging with you guys and we love our O ma fam and

So yeah, uh feel free to reach out to Kate if if you want for any kind of words of encouragement. I'm sure you'd appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. Anyways, so here we are.

Uh, again, taking a break from cancer and talking doing a book report. We've already done Shakespeare. Have we done him multiple times or did we only do him for McBeath? Was it just Macbeth? Yeah. I don't know why I thought we did Romeo and Juliet at some point. No. Mm mm. No, yeah, I guess you're right. We don't have so many books. Uh so we are doing a midsummer night stream. I will say, uh, I have seen this play once.

And it was when Caitlin and I were first dating. It was one of my date nights I planned. Yeah, we went to it. I had never seen it before and here it Caitlin is, you know, she's been teaching it for m so many years, knows it I think at the time maybe it still is is it still your favorite Shakespeare? Uh okay.

My favorite Shakespeare tragedy is Macbeth, which we did. Oh, okay. And my favorite Shakespeare comedy is a Midsummer Night's Dream. So, you know We've covered both. We've covered both of my faves. And I remember I distinctly remember watching it. And I look over at Caitlin just to kinda see like how she's enjoying it, how the date's going. And I look over and her eyes are just wide, glazed over.

Ho so focused in and her mouth is just repeating, is like saying the words, uttering the words as they're being spoken on stage. It was uh quite adorable and also impressive that you were just like quoting it verbatim. I just saw you, I was like, Oh my gosh, you Well honestly too, yeah. Uh n it's it I've even taught this multiple times in my classroom, so You get to You get to know the words.

So we've already talked about Shakespeare before in a book report. So I'm not gonna waste your time, uh, Kate, going rehashing what you've already talked about. If you want to go back and listen to some of that information, that's great. You can go back and listen to that Macbeth book report. I think w I wanna focus on I'm just curious about uh what you know about the writing, the the either the process, the inspiration, why he wrote this.

Um, and maybe even some insight from me and our listeners about, you know, what made his style unique, maybe the way he did his comedies that made them unique at the time. Uh well the this play was a commission. So th this By by who? I f I don't know who, but it was for a wedding. Oh. Uh and that that was

Is that really this major money? Yeah, I mean a lot of his plays were he was he was commissioned to write a play about such and such, you know, and a lot of the history plays were that. You know, for the tutors, they're like, Hey, you know write a history play about the history of our family.

And then he gets to write a play for himself. So it's kinda l like you see with some filmmakers where it's like, I'll make something for the studio, one for me. Yeah. Uh and so that that's Tale is old as time. So this one was commissioned to be performed to celebrate a wedding. Um, so that was just one flex that a lot of nobles would do, which is like, We're getting married and We want a play? We're having a play put on. For our guests.

God man. I guess I haven't been to that many like rich weddings, but what a baller move to be like we had Shakespeare write We had we had Shakespeare pen an original play for our wedding. Well and it's it's meta too because this whole play revolves around a wedding. You know, you it starts off with you have famous Greek mythol mythological hero Theseus, um guy who cuts off the the head of uh

Snake hair lady, Medusa, you know, that guy and a bunch of other stuff. I d oh I didn't know I I don't know you're pretend like you're talking to someone who doesn't know much about it. I didn't know that was someone from mythology Theseus of Athens. is getting married in this case to Hippolyta, the the queen of the Amazons. So that's how it starts off, where just these two figures are getting married and it ends at their wedding.

So it's just like that's kind of the book end of this play and I love it because then this play was originally performed at a wedding, so Um th really what what you have here is that was easy to then translate into our own story is that you you have this idea of love is seen as both like marriage itself is like

one of the ultimate, um, rational things to do. It it creates order. Like everything's restored, everything's in balance with a wedding. Um, but then love itself romantic love especially is chaotic and um And just like going against the order of things and like it it you know, you have this idea of like Um love makes you blind, you know, in here and um it it makes you act like

completely opposite to y who you usually are. Um and so it's perfect because you have a bunch of um dichotomies in here and he's good at that. He's good at like um world building in such a way that everything from the words the people speak to the character creation to the setting is

has holds meaning and then it's just a silly play at the same time. Um so you have, you know, the city versus as like civilization and everything making sense and there's like a specific hierarchy to how people are and there's an order to which they're supposed to you know, act and and y you know, you're supposed to obey your parents, you're supposed to um women are supposed to come under the headshit of men and all that so

Then you go into the forest where the fairies are and everything goes amuck. Um, and you see kind of like a shadow slash um all not quite Black Mirror, but just like an an alternate version of yourself that like also speaks truths to who you are. So, um

Anyways, you you kind of once again have these different like four plots at the same time, which is cool. He's like able to like have moving parts. on stage. It I I think the reason that I mean gosh, I've seen the play once, this is over a decade ago. We just did our podcast of the story, and granted it's the podcast we're loosely, loosely adapting it. But Both times I walk away.

n really struggling to understand the plot of Midsummer Night's Dream. And it sounds like that's maybe part of it. It's like kind of dense. Sounds like there's a lot of kind of confusion or like different worlds you're jumping into. Is that just me or is that like

purposeful that it's supposed to be maybe kind of like confusing. It is, yeah. It the i even at the very end, um, you know, the final words of the play you have the character Puck, or also known as Robin Goodfellow, um, who turns straight to the audience, like breaks the fourth wall. And it's it's like I we know you've been watching this entire time. We know you're here. And if this didn't make sense to you, then consider it was all a dream.

Is is I don't know if you know much about other writings or other kind of what what was coming out at that time, like Shakespeare's peers. It sounds so like dense in some ways of like the writing. Whereas like the common audiences like tracking this stuff, what were audiences kinda used to this layered metaphorical kind of writing? I d I dec I have a hard time understanding

someone uh not that they were all dumb, but just being able to track difficult stories like this, I could just see a lot of it going over people's heads. Some of it would, but you you had The oral tradition of stories at this time was such that

He's pulling from mythology, especially Greek mythology. Is he pulling from stuff that they're they that's like Palm and Um Yeah, he's pulling from like other oral traditions that people would, you know, folklore. That makes sense. Um, and then putting his own twist on it for like a new story.

So, you know, he's he's talking about Obron and Titania, um, and Faye folklore at the same time as talking about um, Theseus and Hippolyta from, you know, mentioned in in Greek mythology, you have the story inside of th that the they put the play on the play within the play of Pyrmis and Thisbee and that was like a known story. So you have some familiar points that they would know and granted too During Shakespeare's time, a Child, say an eight to ten year old child, they're working vocabulary.

is better than the average adult today. Interesting. So i you know, I'm not saying that they are like super literate, but just the words that they would know the meaning of and so it's spoken on the stage and a lot of word play. um puns and um paradoxical, you know, situations and

um, hyperboles and metaphors, all these things they they would get. It sounds like you he's like he was writing to his audience at the time. And people would be rewatching it. They'd come in, you know, you go to the cheap seats and people would re watch

the play. It's not as if they'd only go once and then walk away and try to figure it out that one time. So they'd come multiple times. Even like the commoners, like in in the lower levels, they could afford that. It was not it wasn't expensive. Oh God, no. Yeah, they they could They were s they were super cheap seats. I mean, they they weren't even seats, it was just standing. The the the groundlings, the people who were standing on the ground and would

If you if you weren't doing well that you would also ha be at the ready to have like spoiled food thrown on you. So you gotta you gotta please them first and calm them down. Um And then the higher level thinking is for those who could afford the seats up, you know, w the paying customers basically.

um not necessarily nobility at that time, although we consider that this was first at a wedding for nobility. Um But you're yeah, you you ha you need stuff that's both lowbrow and highbrow but at the same time everybody's getting the language. How was this at the time when this came out is there much r recordings on how this was received? Was it one of his more popular

I'm sure it is there. That was not part of my research, so I I don't know like how it was received. Um I I do know that this was I think how is it re how maybe you can tell me then as someone who's read a lot of Shakespeare What is where does this tend to rank maybe among fans of Shakespeare in his writing. Like where it w does this and that maybe that's an impossible thing'cause it's like

talk uh you know, ask anybody and they would have completely different ranking based on their preference of Shakespeare. But does this tend to be a beloved one in his in his canon? Yeah. I it is. Um, I have no idea like how to rank it. Uh you know, that that's gonna vary from person to person who enjoys Shakespeare. But I will say it has an extensive list of

um, being alluded to in in a lot of other works and then it's especially in modern works, I will say. Like this is this is something that you see over and over again. Like I was I was looking at um Just things that I recognize. There's a huge list of like where not only is this like portrayed as an adaptation, but just like where it's

once again alluded to in other works, you know, everything from like in in print we have it something that you and I have read together, The Sandman, the comic series, you know, Neil Gaiman. Um he used it in the nineteen ninety issue a Midsummer Night Straight. You know, in that story, Shakespeare and his company performed the play for like the real Oberon and Titania. Yeah, which is so cool. Yeah. And an audience of fairies. And so the play's heavily quoted in the comic.

Shakespeare's son Hamnet appears in the play as the Indian boy. Um And actually that issue was the first and only comic to win the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction in nineteen ninety one. Really? Very cool. Yeah. But we also see it in Terry Pratchett's book Lords and Ladies, which is a parody of a Midsummer Night's Dream, published in nineteen ninety two.

Um, we see it like in in famous composed music in eighteen twenty six. Felix Mendelssohn uh composed a concert overture inspired by the play and um almost twenty years later, like it was still so popular that he was commissioned to write a whole like series that was based on uh a Midsummer Night's Dream and that's actually where we get the famous wedding mark.

Um, so that's you know, frequently used as a recessional in weddings. That's from a Midsummer Night's Dream. That's wild. I had no idea about that. Yeah. Well what is the definitive film version? I mean I love the nineteen ninety nine version. Uh Who's in that one? That okay, so written and directed by Michael Hoffman. We've got Kevin Klein as bottom. We've got Rupert Everett as Oberon, Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, Stanley Tucci as Puck.

Sophie Marceau is Hippolyta, Christian Bale is Demetrius, Dominic West is Lysander, um Anna Friel is Hermia, Callista Flockhart as Helena. Um yeah, it's it's each test. Yeah, and it it is so fun to watch. That's the one that grew up watching and uh still like would show even in my in my classroom. So that but even like I love how I mean

Dead Poet Society, right? Like it features the play as a production for which like the character Neil, um, tries out and he wins the role of Pac in spite of his father's disapproval of his acting aspirations. Uh let's jump forward to 2001. Do you remember the teen movie Get Over It? Yes. Okay. Um that teen comedy. Uh starring Kirsten Dunn.

Ben Foster, Shane West, Martin Short, Colin Hanks, Mila Kunis, and Sisko. I saw I I saw that movie and I remember really liking it. But in that in that film, the students are preparing for a high school production of a Midsummer Night's Dream as their own lives echo the place. Um we have like the Beatles paying homage to it in uh on the twentieth of April nineteen sixty four, um, where they reenacted the play within the play as like

Bottom and friends, um, uh, on British television, they had like their own special called Around the Beatles. So like Paul McCartney was Pyramid. John Lennon was Thisbe, George Harrison was Moonshine, and Ringo Star was the Lion. Um and they did it like before a live audience, even like having like some hecklers. Yeah. Uh you yeah. So it's it's Spana for you.

m like slightly younger than me, uh, people out there, if you watch Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, there's like a whole episode that's dedicated to it. So it's it's easily alluded to and portrayed Um in a lot of like comedies and romantic comedies. So it's it it's just fun. Yeah. If

Someone's on the fence maybe about should I read this? Is it worth it? What would be your pitch of like why someone should check out this play? I think I I think my go-to is if you are Shakespeare curious This should be the first one you read. Oh really? This is a good intro to Shakespeare. Really? Yeah.

Because in high school this was not my favorite. This is not one that was assigned for us in high school. No, usually it's right, ninth grade intro is Romeo in general. Yeah. Which I would say read one of his comedies first. Yeah.

because it it kind of is a good intro in a way that you still get the beautiful language, but a lot more play on on words. A lot more because um it much less about the dramatic irony, much less about the positioning, much less about the pacing, um, although that's there, and way more about uh the double meanings of words because there's a lot of fun comedic opportunity there. Um and it has some some of the most memorable outlandish characters here as well. So, um

Yeah. But one of my favorites growing up was, um, Though She Be Little, she is fierce, which, you know, is the line from here that when women are like fighting over men and they're like, watch out for her, she's gonna scratch her eyes out. Um So tha that's why I would say like it it's a good intro to Shakespeare. Whereas, you know, you have You do have Romeo and Juliet. You have the depth of Hamlet and Macbeth. You have the rousing words of Henry the Fifth. Um, you have

you have just like the clever plot devices that are in Two Gentlemen of Verona, um, and Much Ado About Nothing. But for this this is I think this is a super beginner friendly. um comedy for Shakespeare.

Turning away from Shakespeare's play. I want to connect it now to the podcast. Can you tell me a little bit about what the process was like, what what what your thinking and planning was going into crafting this arc for our campaign? Yeah, I... I knew I wanted that lost civilization to be on another plane. Mm-hmm. And I thought the Feywild would be a good one for that. Kinda getting s you know, being so forgotten, being so distorted.

that you get swallowed up by the Fay Wild. Was that because I know we talked a long time ago about we knew that there was going to be us going to a lost civilization like the the where the last page was needed to be this forgotten civilization So was it was it c did did Midsummer's Night's Dream come first?

Or was it the plot and so you're like, I need to find a book that can fit another kind of world? Yeah, it was a plot and realizing I want it to be the Feywild um and then what would fit into that. And looking at like recommendations from listeners that I've saved, um, a Midsummer Night Stream popped up. I'm like, that would be that would be awesome. And it's a work that I love. So um once that fit into place, then it was fun figuring out

How um that could fit in, and and I realized this is a play about duality. This is a play about you know, the sh once again I said like the shadow self and also just how things go topsy turvy when you're with the w with the fairies, but every character alm almost every character in here has like a double. You know, like you have one you know to two mortal rulers who are coming together with the wedding with Theseus and Hippolyta.

at the same time you have these two Fay rulers of Oberon and Titania who are having like a schism, like the two of them are fighting, um, over a changeling kid. Um You have Puck, you know, who is um not qu not a fairy but a fag, um like a hobgob goblin character who can like change shape and is very mischievous. Um, but with that same P like you have like the assistant.

to uh to Theseus named Philostraty, so another P name, you know, who's very uptight and kind of like the butler character, um, master of revels at the same time. uh you have Bottom who turn you know, his his head is turned into that of an ass, um, or a donkey. um, when he comes under enchantment and still is like one of the ki characters who speaks like simple truths. Um Yeah, so it I I love that idea of I loved that idea and still do of when you guys went into the Feywild

w you you're functioning as in you are not yourself and so you have to fight even harder to remember who you are and to act true to who you are. Um and then my favorite part which you know, we have that we had that aha moment like at the end where um Didn't want it to just be another fight. Didn't want it let's put a but's pause on that'cause I want to go because I do want to focus on that'cause that that is okay. One of my favorite parts, one of my favorite things you've ever done.

This was one of the most difficult arcs I think we've ever done that you put us through. Just because the body switching made it so, so, so, so hard. Yeah. Even practically, I don't know, when you were trying to talk to us, it was always like we always would say on the show, do you mean like the soul of the character or the body of the character? Because it was like, Well, I'm Bertram, but I'm not in Bertram right now. I'm in someone else. It was always so confusing and

knowing who was what, even like what items do I have? What can I do in a situation? What is this person carrying? Oh, I have whole other stats now of what they can do. So all these characters that we've been playing for five years or so, all of a sudden it's like, okay, throw that out the window. You're not them right now for a while. Uh only recently in our uh I won't spoil it, but in our neck on our our next arc finally being back in my body and

casting a spell. It was like that was the first time I cast a spell in like seven, eight months. Uh getting it myself again. It was just really hard. And especially'cause w we were going slower this time because, you know, with yeah, with cancer and everything. when we would take longer breaks, coming back was like, Wait, who is who? Wait, who knows what? Where are we? Who they know this? But wait, they switched back to being that. They forgot again. Yeah. Uh

Not saying that obviously not saying that was bad. It was just a a real challenge of keeping track. have to, I think, pause a lot to be like, wait, is this what you mean? Or wait, what happened again? Uh or what I noticed you guys struggled with was uh saying things, like even just improving and um riffing off one another because you had the extra barrier of changing voices or or trying to change voice. Um until I

Took pity on you and did something where I'm like, all right, just keep your normal voice. Well, because I was one of the few that had multiple voices, obviously besides you. But I think I cause I was. I was Penny at first and then I turned into Pip. And then Yeah, you just threw me a bone at the end. You're like, okay. That not only that, but also going back to my body, you're like, When you went back, you changed back.

I wanna talk about Puck, who I think might be maybe top three character you've ever N P C you've ever made in the show. So fun. You would think maybe like is this bit gonna get tiring after a while, but it never did. Puck was fun, the way he was romant uh romancing, you know, like Awyn, the way that he always had a c a club come up.

Where did you get the idea? Tell me about playing Puck and how you got the idea of kind of mirroring Stefan because that was a stroke of brilliance. I it was more so just a well timed TikTok. It was uh while I was working on planning it, I was just watching like a slew of like the best of Stefan and I'm like this there's something about that where

unabashedly like flirtatious sometimes to um always knowing the best place to go. I'm like, what if what if the Fay Wild like was just a bunch of clubs? Mm-hmm. Um So funny. Yeah. It w it was something new and I was looking for a new voice. Um, and really liked the challenge of trying to to write uh a few Uh Stefanesque uh or Stefan. Stefan Stefan. Stefan, Stefan. Stefan. Yeah, Stefanesque. Um Club descriptions. So that was that was fun. So fun.

Like the I it's like you wanna pause and like go play at half speed just to catch all the details and and I'm sure for people who w which is why I love our show, yeah, patting ourselves on the back. of all the details and Easter eggs that you put in there that if you like it makes people who have read these books like they get rewarded for doing so and being well read.

There's so many inside jokes. I'm sure I understood barely any of them, but they were still even if you didn't, they were still really, really fun. Uh, what were some other Easter eggs? Uh again, I'm leading to the end, which is which is a uh I wanna focus on too, but any other kind of Easter eggs or quotes? That you got to mention? Um there that one point, you know, how uh

I I kind of established like in the Fay Wild and this is me like understanding Fay folklore, like names are a big deal. Um and then keeping kind of with the theme one of the themes Or should I say one of the motifs of our show is like this idea of like your true name is very important. And so I think that would bleed into even like how Puck has he used to be before everything changed, you know, with the Book of Lore.

knowing true name and seeing like how like they fucked that up and like this yeah this was like their punishment. Um and so how names i are important to them. So Anyways, before you guys go into the first club, he recommends you guys like have like code names. And so I I give you guys each of the the craftsmen's names and they're, you know, like Snug and Snout and Starvling and um

Yeah, Quince, I think is another one. So I that's just like a throwaway little thing where if you know, you know Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah. Uh Trying to think like if of other fun little Well if you something pops up you can tell me. I'll say that one of my favorite moments on the whole art that I remember just going back to and listening to was

There there's things that you don't you guys listeners don't get to see because you're not getting the visual part of it like we do when we're playing online together. But Awen and I or Aaron and I when we were in one of the clubs And we were kinda going around w there was no music playing. I I put music in in the background to kind of set the vibe for the l for listening at home.

But obviously there was no music as we were playing. But I I to help myself get in character, I like moving around and trying to kind of You're bobbing your head like Night of the Rocksbury. Yeah, exactly. Trying to kind of like move around as if music's playing. It kinda helps my Helps my body kind of feel like it's doing something. Yeah. So I remember during that whole club scene when we were first seeing or trying to approach

Uh, Oberon and Titania or whatever, uh Hippolyta. I was see, I confuse their names'cause there were two different things. No, she was Titania at the time. Yeah. When we approached them, when we were just like What's your name? Who w who is that? Like gaslighting her as Wegme and Aaron were just making each other laugh over the zoom. We were just d doing like club rave dancing with our hands like we were

High on like ecstasy or something. Yeah. I was cracking up so much. That was one of my favorite moments from the entire the entire And even that, like s the how uh words that I have uh that I had her speak when you first approached her

Um, you know, lines coming straight from the play are definitely gonna be um woven in there. The there's one part where you have two people who show up who are selling you things and their names are Helena or Hermia, which are two of the main characters from Midsummer Night Stream. Um Y yeah, you you have uh you have like descriptions of of the Fay folk um at different points that come straight from here as well. But yeah, the the real the central

Easter egg, the central like crossover is that play within a play. Yeah. Tell me now about that, because I think that was a another stroke of genius by you, how you landed on that as like As opposed to your normal what you think of boss battle ending of an arc where like we gotta fight the big bad evil guy. Tell us how you landed on that instead.

Um so yeah, I I didn't want it to be just another encounter, battle, roll role initiative, fight to the end. Um And so I was trying to think like a especially towards the end of a Midsummer Night's Dream, what is like a pivotal moment and Um that's one of the four subplots are these craftsmen um who are kind of the clowns of the play are are trying to rehearse something to perform for the wedding for Theseus and

and Hippolyta. Um so getting very meta considering once again how this play was first even put on. Um And so they do and and it is a ridiculous um version of the tragedy of Pyrmis and Thisbe. um, two lovers who were not allowed to be together and kind of would talk through um a hole in the wall and they make a plan to meet one night.

Um, at a tomb. One of'em gets there fur uh she gets there first and a lion scares her off and she throws her veil and Then Pyrramus comes up and sees the lion who's like scratching at the veil, assumes that she's been killed by the lion, so he kills himself, and then she comes up just as he's dying and she kills herself. Um tragedy. So these these guys put on this play for a wedding, very, very fitting for a wedding. Um and just butcher it and make it

absolutely horrendously hilarious. So, um Anyways, that's ki I've thought okay, like that's how everything comes together. That's how you kinda know like this is a comedy and things are gonna end well in the play. Why don't we have that here where you guys have to put on a play? Um,'cause you haven't done that before. And of course

performance inclined, Bertram especially. Um, and I thought too that would be a good way to to bring like what's a way to bring Oberon and Titania together and help them remember that they are also Theseus and Hippolyta. Like these two versions of themselves need to come together from that fracture to make them whole again. Um Yeah. So it was it was fun and so everything in there was so much fun from the script

To the roles. Casting it, getting props. To the props, to the lines that you guys were fed were straight from that play within a play at the end of a Midsummer Night Stream. It was so so much fun. I've been playing we've been playing D and D, you know, not as long as a lot of people, but we've been playing for about eight years, you know, just just playing the game of of D and D, not the podcast. And I tell you, every time I c I can do something that I've never done before or heard before.

It's so exciting. So the idea of putting on a play Yeah. In while role playing in almost a different kind of form of initiative where like you're taking turns of who's going in and doing a thing. Yeah. With a goal in mind. Was so, so, so, so, so much fun. And then getting to see how our characters would even do that Yeah. How how they would react and and do it was it was so much fun.'Cause yeah, you you I know we were talking a little bit and I yeah, I agreed the idea of

Big bad evil guy just hack and slash. It's like you can just get repetitive and those fights go on for so long. And the way that this one just worked so well with the story and aligned with it and what we were trying to do Helping them wake up, not just trying to a f uh you know, fight them and attack them, but trying to help them Right,'cause they weren't the enemy. Like they they needed to be saved. Exactly. It was just so much fun.

Uh any any other kind of Easter eggs or anything else you want to mention about the the podcast putting together? One other thing that was is is like a key plot device in a mid summer night stream are th they're called Love and Idleness flowers. And in the play it's it's a flower whose nectar um Puck puts on the eyes of different characters and it makes them fall in love with the first living thing that they see. That's how like Titania falls in love with

um, bottom w as he has like the head of a donkey. It's how you have like the four Athenian youths that have run into the um There's there's not a love triangle, it's a love square. here or you know, just it it's how like they get mixed up on who they're in love with as well and just all craziness ensues. So Um, anyways, I I wanted to have that play a key event where I wasn't having people fall in love in

'Cause that made no sense to our story. Yeah. But people were transformed nonetheless. So instead of like being transformed in the mind by how you perceive love, instead you guys were just like body swapped. Instead of swapping who wants to kissy kiss who, yeah, you're swapping who's in whose body. Um and so you when you first land um into the Fae Wild, you are in a circle of those flowers. And that's the same flower that you have to have to get out.

So By the way, when we first landed there in the Fey Wild and you had us roll to see what bodies we'd be in, I I know we rolled I don't know if you fudged the dice or not, but Each one that we landed in also was so fitting in some ways. Like just thinking for Bertram, I know Bertram and Penny were had been at odds for a bit and doing so for me to be like in her shoes I found really interesting for

uh Frankenstein to be in Bertram's body, even though'cause they have tension too. Um I uh I'm I'm struggling to even remember the other ones. Some of them fit really well. Others, I mean like I mean, it was sweet how Penny ended up in um Uh Pip's body. Yeah. That was cool. Um

But A wind in into Frankenstein's body. I mean, I I think every I think whoever you whoever you landed in, there was some cool tension there. That's true. And I guess Bertram just happened to have some tension going on with Penny and Frankenstein going into it.

So for it it to be kind of on both sides I thought was very interesting. I just love the way that worked out and you could play out that element also. Um, anything else you want to talk about? I No, it it was f I think I had so much fun too behind like If you if you've ever DM'd, you get it. But

You know, th there are things that you plan and you design behind the scenes that you know might never see the light of day. Yeah. Might never come to fruition or be used. But you do it anyways'cause it's fun. Um, and so I will say like when I was doing the w when I was creating the character sheets for both Pip And for Frankenstein, um it was fun to to kind of class them but also homebrew the mech suit.

we we have not seen their full capability. Like we I I it was fun like j'cause I didn't know what was gonna ha I don't know what you guys are gonna do, so it's like I might as well like arm it in some fun ways that um might never appear, but it's there if we need it. And so yeah, he both mech suits, both for Pip and for for Frankenstein, there were some fun things there.

badass battle stuff. Um and and Pip had some some things where you could set fire and blow things up from that little Mexican All the work that DMs do that's fun, yeah. Eleven years ago an energy company comes down here. They unearthed that. What's a door? We call it the vault. I think whatever is on the other side of that door out there, it's not friendly. I I can open it. I can give them what they want. The entire grid's buckling. It's a domino! Everyone hold on to something.

What have we done to ourselves? He sacrificed. Just lost the outridge. LOST! It exploded! It's the only one who can get the others to that ship I'm- I lost something. Bring it home. Killian is so Important to The little ones right. Made. So it's to be war between us then. I think it must be. Mark versus Dorian. Jesus Christ. Who is this Dr. Grass? You keep talking about it No cards to play here, because what's coming? Derelict. Yeah. Crowdfunding. Support us at derelictpodcast.com slash wall.

Well I wanna take uh I wanna pivot away and I wanna play a little game with you and our listeners. Hey this I love this this section. I always love coming up with the games. So What I want to do I have ten of I found movies. that have modern or at least uh different twists on a classic Shakespeare story. Okay. Um and I took what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read to you almost verbatim uh a synopsis that I found on IMDB for this movie. And there's two points for each one.

There's the name of the movie and also the Shakespeare play that they are adapting or loosely, loosely adapting sometimes. Okay. So how many points? So the possible twenty points. How many points do you think you can get? Oh. I I I think I'm not gonna do well. I am I am out of practice. I bet you'll get I bet you'll get twelve. Oh man, that's so nice. I I was thinking seven. I was thinking seven, but okay. Let's see how you do. Some of these are gonna be easy and some might be re- So number one.

A young lion prince is cast out of his pride by his cruel uncle who claims he killed his father. While the uncle rules with an iron paw, the prince grows up beyond the savannah, living by a philosophy, no worries for the rest of your days. But when his past comes to haunt him, the young prince must decide his fate. Will he remain an outcast or face his demons and become what he needs to be? Okay, this is the Lion King. Yes. But hold on.

This is two Shakespeare plays. Ooh. What's the one that's always considered? Like the one Hamlet that is al is o I mean, right, the the uncle killed the dad and Um he has to confront it. Yeah. But but it's also Henry the Fifth. Really? Uh a young prince who cannot take it goes off and says, No, I'm I'm just I I'm gonna change my name, I'm gonna be Hal

Uh, and I'm going to um live the carefree life and so Pumba and Timon are fall staff. Oh, cool, cool. Um until like shit goes awry from my father. I need to come back and I didn't know that. I I I always heard Hamlet with that, but that makes total sense. Mm-hmm. So you see, that was the that was the example. Oh, that that's number one. But see you got it. So I get three points now. I'll take two. All right, number two.

And you keep track of your your points over there for me. Ah damn it. Okay. A war hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become Lord of Spider's Web Castle. I mean that's Macbeth. Spider's Web Castle I don't know. What is that? It's Japanese. Oh, um Ah shit.

We watched this, didn't we? The answer is Throne of Blood. Ah, damn it. Yeah, we did watch it. We didn't finish we didn't go back and finish it. We started it now. I'd watch it just for that scene with uh the their version of the Weird Sisters. Oh yeah. That was crazy. I mean Miffune. Come on. Oh. Alright, so you have three points. You got the play right. Number three. Popular pretty Bianca Stratford is in a dilemma.

A family rule forbids her from dating until her unpopular, rebellious, boy-hating older sister Kat gets a suitor of her own. In an attempt to win Bianca, a potential boyfriend desperately attempts to set Kat up with Patrick Verona, another rebel who may just be able to win Kat's heart. Uh that's ten things I hate about you based on Tamina the Shrew. That's right, see? Two points right there. Five. Yeah. Yeah, you're crushing it. I know you're gonna get this one too.

When her brother decides to ditch for a couple weeks, Viola heads over to his elite boarding school, disguised as him, and proceeds to fall for his school-star soccer player, and soon learns she's not the only one with romantic trouble. It's she's the man. But what the fuck is the name of I always get this one mixed up. Um, is it Duh z no it's not too gentlemen of Rona. It's Oh You got three seconds. Mm. You're gonna say it and I'll be like, Oh duh Twelfth night. Twelfth night.

Okay, so how many points do you got? I have six. Six. Okay, see you're looking good. This one, good luck on. Maybe you'll you'll understand it. There's some something in here in the description you're like, oh, this sounds like this. So think loosely adaptation. What could this be? Okay. When an Earth mission arrives at Altair 4, they find that Dr. Edward Morbius and his beautiful daughter Altera are the only survivors from the original expedition that had arrived some twenty years before.

Morbius isn't exactly pleased to see them and would have preferred that they not even land their spaceship. He does his he does his best to get them on their way, but Commander Adams and his men soon face an invisible force leading them to believe that Morbius and the girl are in danger.

Morbius claims to know nothing of their life on the planet, but does reveal their but does reveal there once existed a far superior race, now extinct, that left a huge subterranean industrial and scientific complex. Oh, it's the play that Brave New World is named after. Um And we had a reading of it. This is a nineteen fifties movie, I believe. Oh, I have no idea what the movie is. I'm saying the Shakespeare play. We ha we have done a reading of this play. We hosted it. Maybe.

Yeah, Aldus Huxley named a Brave New World after it. Um Why can I not think? This is unfortunate. I'm gonna say I forget. The Tempest. Thank you. Yeah. Does that sound like the Tempest at all? Oh okay, it does. I mean

Sh uh just uh Guy and his daughter are like the last one. Gotcha. Sorcerer shipwrecked with his daughter living on a island The m people also get shiped wrecked there later and the g the one of the captains falls in love with the daughter and s you have a cool spirit based uh kind of Like a a sea spirit named Ariel in it and I don't know. Anyways, Tempest, yeah. And the movie is called Forbidden Planet. Pretty popular sci-fi movie back in the fifties, I believe. Okay.

What are you what what are your points at? I'm still at six. Okay, and this is number six. When Burke Landers, a popular high school basketball star, gets dumped by his lifelong girlfriend Allison, he starts to lose it. But with help from his best friend Felix's sister, Kelly, he follows his ex into the school spring musical. Thus induced by the

Indues, endure' I don't know if that's pipe or not. Thus indues a love triangle loosely based on Shakespeare's blank. Thus ensues okay endues okay. Thus ensues a love triangle loosely based on Shakespeare's blank. In which Burke finds himself getting over Allison and beginning to fall for Kelly. Get over it. Yeah, you spoiled it earlier. You spoiled my game. Okay, so you have eight points now? Yeah. Well that have you seen that movie, by the way? Mm-hmm. I remember seeing it when it uh

I remember when it came out, yeah. When what Cisco is in it? So funny. All right, number seven. In the 1940s, in the small town of Jupiter Hollow, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night.

one set to a poor local family, and the other to a rich family just passing through. The dizzy nurse on duty accidentally mixes the twins unbeknownst to the parents, Our story flashes forward to the 1980s, where the mismatched sets of twins are about to cross paths following a big business deal to close down the Jupiter Hollow Factory. I'd never even heard of this movie. Me neither. That doesn't sound like a play?

No. I'll give you a hint. It's a comedy. Boa. Okay. I mean, yeah. Mistaken identity. All about that. Um I said I'm giving you a hint. It's a comedy. A comedy of errors? Yes. Okay. I'll give myself a half point for that. It's called you should give yourself zero points. Hey, I got the of errors. You did. It's uh called Big Business apparently. I think uh Oh shoot, what's her name? Uh the actress who is very old now, but is on Sesame Street sometimes we see uh

Oh man, I'm bombing it. Anyways, big business. Go check it out. Wait, I'm gonna look up big business right now. Okay, look it up. Tell me if I'm wrong. Are you telling me I'm looking at the wrong? She is typing it down. I'm think I you're gonna say the name of the actress, I think. I mean Bet Midler's on it, Lily Tom. Lily Tomlin.

So Seth Green as Jason. Okay. He must have been really young if it was came out in the eighties. Yeah. So there you go. You said you said Dolly Parton? Or you said Bet Midler? Bet Midler and Lily Tomlin. Number eight. And you're at six point oh you're at six points still. Give me six.

Two youngsters from No I have eight points. I have eight points. Eight point five. Oh, that's right. Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy. Um Romeo and Juliet. Yep. And the movie that was remade that didn't that didn't need to be remade. Um People love it. That's Yumi just didn't really People are allowed to love it. And I'm allowed to not. Um

When you're regette, you're regette. I can do I can do my vocal stem. I cannot I cannot for the life of me and somebody right now is probably screaming at me, it's this Um I thought you were good at trivia. Shut up. West side story. Thank you. I'm not counting that I got. So you're at nine and a half points? Yeah. I'll give you the other one. You're at ten points. Woo! 'Cause I said when you're a jet.

When you're a jet, you're a jet. Let's see if you get well, I say twelve points for you? Yeah. Don't make me a fool. In medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other and him. Is this another Kurosawa that we watched? Yep. Which I

Fuck me if I know. Um, but it's King Lear. Yeah. Uh Ran. Ron? I think it's Ran. So, so, so good. I really like that movie. Alright, so you're at you're at eleven points. I'm at eleven points. Alright, you gotta get at least one of these. In this modern version of Shakespeare's blank, Odin James is the black star of the basketball team at an otherwise white boarding school. He is headed for big time with his sport and is in love with Desi, the most popular girl girl in school.

Meanwhile, Hugo is the coach's son, but he is outshone on court by Odin, and his father says he thinks of Odin as a son as well. Hugo's feelings of envy and neglect lead him to construct a plot to make Odin doubt Dessie's love for him, a plot which Hugo was willing to take to its most extreme consequences. I love that they renamed Iago Hugo in this.

It's Othello and the movie is O. Oh, you've s okay you yeah, you got thirteen points. Woo! Have you seen O? I've never I remember hearing about it had Julia Styles in it. And I remember I think it came out when we were in high school. I don't remember much about it. Me neither. I mean I I How'd you pull how'd you know how'd you know the name of it so fast? You just heard of it? Oh yeah.

Yeah, I mean I've taught Othello a couple of times over too. It's one of those ones I o I know almost nothing about. Is that where someone like drowns themselves by looking like in the water or something? Or I mean that's a No, I I don't Is that not that is that not Othello? No, I thought there's something where someone like looks in the water and they and like they they drown.

I don't know. Makai Pfeiffer. That is who plays the titular character in O. Is their name is Odin is that right? Or is it supposed to be like Othello and they changed it to Odin? I'm yeah, there's no Odin in Othello. I mean Odin is is a v a very different name. Uh yeah, I know so it's just called Oh.

Well, you won, Kate. You got thirteen points. Out there, if you played along, let me let me know, uh reach out. Tell me how many points you got. Tell me How many of you beat me? There's going to be plenty of you. How many of you bested the master teacher? Yes.

Well that's the end of another book report episode. Let me just end with uh a little call to action for you out there listening. If you aren't already, uh part of the Oh Mam Mam fam. We would love for you to join on our Patreon. You can go check out a link that we'll have in the description below. There are exclusive content on there. We do after shows, after every episode with the cast. We all talk about what has just happened.

And we talk with Kate about planning it and everything, get into the episode. We also do uh we also do book club kind of e ev every once in a while where people will get on, talk we'll talk about books that we're reading. Also do wow, like early releases. It's just a good place to be. And also you're got some great people. You're on the Discord and th we have a good a cool little Oh ma'am fam on there. We all get the chat on the regular prior pretty much ta talking every day, I think.

And it's so, so much fun. We would love for if you're looking for just to support our little mini podcast, we would love for you to come on there and just hang out with us. Also, feel free to reach out to us at uh wait, omam show at gmail dot com if you have any questions, emails, comments, book recommendations for me or Kate. We always love engaging with you on there as well. I'm not sure if we're on social media anywhere. We used to be. I don't know if we are. No.

We're not engaging with the right. If we are, it's it is unintentional. But we would love a rating review. Uh we haven't got one in a while. If you're out there and you've been and you're newer to the show, if you're kind of churning through it, because we we get those kind of comments on the side.

please leave a rating and review. It really does help motivate other people to check it out because you know it's one thing if it's coming from us, but coming from listeners who actually enjoyed the show. It goes a long way. So if you was wanna punch stars or whatever, wherever you listen to, selfishly we love

reading them. We love getting those words of affirmation. So there's that too. Yeah,'cause sometimes w it does sometimes feel like we're making this show just in a void. So it it's really nice getting to in in engage with you in that way too and getting and to hear feedback. It's it's amazing. And also Caitlin will read your review in I will. The mid roll of an episode so you can hear your beautiful words through her beautiful mouth.

And lastly, again, just share this with your friends if you like the show. You like what we're doing here. If you have other Book nerds, other people who love D D, other people who just love podcasts of friends hanging out and playing games together. We'd really appreciate you sharing with your friends because again, they trust you more than us. So your word goes a lot further than ours.

Thank you so much, Kate, for wa uh talking us through Shakespeare in a Midsummer Night's Dream. Yeah. I mean scratch the surface, but I was happy to throw it. Well th that's pretty much all we can do here in this short amount of time. Yeah. But it's always good getting to talk to you and getting getting to do these.

Hopefully we don't have to wait another nine, ten months before we get to do another one. I know. Hopefully. If you didn't already know, we are starting the last arc of this book of lore. season one that's been going on for four years, maybe five years. No, it's it is exciting and nerve-wracking to like finally be facing down the end of it.

Landing landing the plane or landing the ship, as Caitlin likes to say. Yeah. Either way, spaceship. Landing the spaceship. Space shi ships can land if they're in space. If you've made it this far, w we just I'm so happy and so thankful for you supporting the show over these years and yeah, we're really working really hard. I know Caitlin's working really, really hard just to make sure that we land this thing in a really satisfying way to justify you guys listening over the years.

We know that w you know, just rest assured we're putting our our heart and soul into it and we're so happy. We've already done two episodes of it of the final book. And yeah, we can't wait for you to listen to it and wrap this baby up and then who knows what comes with season two but for right now wrapping up season one well. Mm-hmm. So thank you up there for listening See you next time. The Fable and Folly Network, where fiction producers flourish.

In the alley, the scent is stronger, overpowering. As I watch, the overhead lamps flicker and wink out one by one. The girl appears briefly under the last streetlight, the headphones snug against her ears, the walkman clasped to her hip. She's oblivious as she walks, lost in her own world. Stop! I need to talk to you! Then she swallowed up by the darkness again. Helen! Wait a second! It strikes it. So fast she barely has time to scream.

She falls into the edge of the lamplight and lies there, bleeding, motionless. The man's skin is scaly, flaking, and there are patches of soot on his cheeks. He stares at me with eyes like Midnight. Eyes that are devoid of remorse, devoid of humanity. He's one of them. I turn and run. And I don't look back. The Road of Shadows, a new mystery and suspense audio drama by Mark R. Healy, creator of The Strata. Listen now at theroadofshadows.com.