A Midsummer Night's Dream staged by students of Dawn Grammar School

Students of Dawn Grammar School perform in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mahfuz Anam, editor of The Daily Star attended the event as the chief guest. Nurul Huda, former inspector general of Police and Yasmeen Murshed, chairperson of Scholastica School Ltd were present as special guests.

In his speech, the chief guest said, "Much of our evolution process occurs in schools. Schools play a significant role in developing children's mind. Despite numerous constraints, our schools are demonstrating great success; our students are excelling in O and A level exams."

Speeches by the guests were followed by performances by students of kindergarten, nursery and classes one, two, three. The young ones performed songs and group dances. Special attraction was four youngsters portraying the iconic characters from Shakespeare's plays.

The main event of the evening, staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, started with a scene where three of the characters -- Theseus, a Duke; Hyppolita, fiancée of Theseus and Egeus, a subject of the Duke -- have a conversation.

The comedy revolves around two pairs of lovers in an enchanted forest where fairies dwell. Hermia refuses to accept Demetrius, a suitor chosen by her father Egeus, as her husband. She is in love with Lysander. They cannot get married as Egeus is dead against it, so they decide to elope to the forest near the city. Demetrius hears about the plan and he follows them to the forest. Helens who is madly in love with Demetrius, follows him.

Oberon, King of fairies living in the forest, tries to solve the dilemma of the lovers with the help of magic. The magic, inappropriately applied, cause a blunder which results in a war to attain the love of Helena. A tiff between Oberon and his queen, Titania makes the sub-plot of the play.

Farhan Al Hafiz and Nowrin Huda played Theseus and Hippolyta respectively. Mushfiqur Rahman played Lysander and Tahiya Mansoor was in the role of Hermia. Khaledur Rahman and Shajeela Shawkat played Demetrius and Helena. The play was directed by Tasneem Hossain and Dalia Mahmud. Shirleen Manzur was the music and dance director of the play.