A Midsummer Night's Dream

Midsummer nights dream is considered one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies. This Midsummer nights dream comes alive and delights the senses.

Russell T Davies certainly has taken inspiration from Baz Luhrmann and given Shakespeare a vigorous shake up and update.

In the tyrannical court of Athens which is mocked up with Nazi type regalia, dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, who is trussed just like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Meanwhile young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father as she refuses to marry Demetrius but becomes enchanted with the Harry Potter like Lysander. Meanwhile her friend Helena pines for Demetrius who ignores her. In the forest they fall to mischievous behaviour by the fairies.

In the town an amateur theatre group make plans to rehearse a play for the court but Bottom himself becomes transformed to an ass and finds that the fairy Titania has fallen for him thanks to spells woven by the spurned Oberon and aided by Puck.

RTD reunited with the Doctor Who production team for technical, visual and special effects and composer Murray Gold who brings bombastic music to accompany the imagery. There are some nice touches of RTD's humour. The patrons of the local inn are watching 'The Comedy of Errors' on television which is actually 'You've been Framed.'

Once we enter the forest, it becomes a bit trippy and the pared down text works a treat. I read this play at a school and it was rather unfathomable but here the way RTD has presented it on screen it really works.

It all ends with a bit of a sing song from Bernard Cribbins. What more can you want.

This is fine. If you think it's worthy of a 1-star review, I'd ask you to sit down and watch the 2018 adaptation that sets the story in Hollywood and focuses on cell phones and (I know this secondhand, having shut the thing off 20 minutes in because I hated it) a human butt instead of a donkey.

At least they're trying to say something new with the text. The performances are all solid (BBC sets the standard for this sort of Shakespearean performance on television and should really have handled House of the Dragon instead of HBO, though that's neither here nor there). The sets are adequate. The ideological twist--that Theseus is a fascist Hitler-type dictator--either will or won't work depending on the viewer's taste; the symbolism is simultaneously obvious and opaque, accomplishing a lot by remaining relatively broad and open-ended and conveying meaning through set design and costume rather than the alteration of dialogue (see above comments on performance quality: good delivery and physicality).

If we have to have an updated version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" John Hannah is an excellent updated Theseus. His campaign and other ribbons strike the 60's military. His minions wear "Star Wars" type costumes.

At least there are some of Shakespeare's words and undertones. For the rest, it is reaching.

We still have fairies in the forest that knows how to talk iambic pentameter. But they do not act fairy-like (more as the guardians of the universe.)

You know the story and you know the words but the actors mumble and growl so you may want to use subtitles. A tad of a twist in the end. C'est la vie.

This updating of the play works beautifully I think.

I love Shakespeare and classic opera and I'm wary of modern updates - so often they are facile or irritating and get in the way of the text/score. But this was a delight: genuinely funny, lovely special effects and a real feel for the soul of the play. It wasn't perfect - occasionally the words got lost in the music or through less than perfect diction. I studied this play at school more than 50 years ago and didn't get much of the humour or the cruelty in the treatment of the characters that this production brought out.

I will want to see more traditional productions as well but will return to this one too. Well done RTD - overall it was a great 1hour 35minutes. The BBC have done us proud in the Shakespeare anniversary year with this and the wonderful Hollow Crown.