A Midsummer Night's Dream--1

Last night I began A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the problems here is that the plays that I know and really like go really fast. I mean, a Shakespeare play takes what, two and half hours to play, even if it's uncut (the great tragedies excepted)? So, reading them goes by really fast. Last night I started Midsummer, today I broke into Act III, mostly just reading on the bus.
The first three scenes open with three very different sets of people. First, we get the court of Theseus, who is a few days away from marrying Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, who is maybe a spoil of war. She certainly doesn't show his impatience to get married, at least. A subset, almost a different set, within the court of Theseus is the lovers: Lysander and Hermia are in love, their friend Helena loves Demetrius, who used to love her but is now in love with Hermia. The lovers are famously interchangeable. We don't know why Hermia should prefer Lysander to Demetrius. They look the same in the text. They, of course, have a problem: Hermia's dad wants her to marry Demetrius and Theseus says the law backs up that claim. So, Lysander and Hermia decide to flee through the wood to marry. They tell Helena, who tells Demetrius, in a very bad ploy to get him to love her.
The second set is the mechanicals, a group of commoners planning to perform a play for Theseus' wedding. They're all clowns, but the highlight is Bottom, who is the human foundation of the play. He is wonderful.
The third set is the fairies. King Oberon and Queen Titania are fighting over custodial rights of an Indian boy. This is making the weather suck. Oberon has a henchman called Puck, alternatively Robin Goodfellow. You may remember what's his name playing Puck in Dead Poets' Society. Geez, that was tragic.
The lovers flee, get lost in the forest, the fairies get rather incompetently involved, hilarity and heartbreak ensue.
It's worth remembering that Bottom is the only one in this play who really crosses borders between the groups.
Also, though this is getting long, I was in this play once. Played Theseus and was totally sold on the sexual politics angle. It was community theater, I was in college, doing a favor for a friend by being in the play with a bunch of young high schoolers. At some point I said something ridiculous. The girl playing Hippolyta responded: "I hope my husband is as wise as you."