The BBC Television Shakespeare | A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A 1981 BBC production of Shakespeare's classic comedy play. This was broadcast as part of the 37-play BBC Television Shakespeare project and it was strongly influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.
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Licence: ERA Licence required
- Type: Plays
- Channel: BBC Two
- Duration: 1'51'00''
- Broadcast date: 1981
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
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- Shakespeare Archive Resource
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | A Midsummer Night's Dream
A night of madness in a haunted wood - four young victims of unrequited love stumble about while six workmen are trying to rehearse a play.
Throwing Out The Cobwebs
When Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream opened on Broadway, the New York theatre critic, Clive Barnes, described it as ' ... without any equivocation the greatest production of Shakespeare I have seen in my life.' In Brook's ' Dream 'there are no cobwebs and shimmering wings. Instead the lovers - pursue each other in a white walled gymnasium, Puck and Oberon juggle plates and swing on trapezes; virtually all the established conventions are challenged. This film shows extracts from The Dream, scenes from some of Brook's previous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and a long interview first shown on Review in which Brook talked to James Mossman about his work and aspirations in the theatre.