A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps Shakespeare's most popular play. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a forest outside of Athens, and from there the magic begins. In the introduction to this edition, Peter Holland particularly focuses on dreams and dreamers, as well as Shakespeare's construction of a world of night and shadow. Both here and in his commentary, he examines the extensive performance history of the play to illustrate the multitude of interpretations it allows.