A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1996: Adrian Noble
Probably the oddest of the lot, and a very mixed success. While obviously a film production, it is nonetheless conspicuously stagey, with a lot of clever extra interplay superimposed upon the text. Alex Jennings plays both Theseus and Oberon, and Lindsay Duncan plays both Hippolyta and Titania, thus hammering home with a very heavy fist the parallelism between the two courts. A completely new point-of-view character is introduced — a small boy who moves as a kind of idealized spectator from one scene to another, saying nothing, but watching everything while popping up randomly (and, to my taste, irritatingly) here and there, through pieces of furniture and plumbing, and riding bicycles across the moon a la E.T. Perhaps he’s dreaming the whole thing (as some have suggested) or perhaps his relationship to the action is supposed to be something else — but it remains unexplained and tends to serve as a distraction from the story-line.
The art direction is a rather repellent avant-garde melange of clashing images and oversaturated primary colors. The characters seem to be drawn by turns from Victorian post cards and punk rock groups, and the costuming and makeup are bizarre and unattractive, and look surprisingly dated after only eight years.
Though the film has some vocal champions, I find the whole effect more arch and clever than illuminating. For all its oddness, though, it’s worth seeing, and certainly at its best moments there are some astonishing visions and remarkable pieces of acting. I should warn, however, that there are a few scenes that are more sexually explicit than many will find comfortable or (certainly) dramatically necessary.
Demetrius: Kevin Doyle
Egeus: Alfred Burke
Fairy; Courtier: Dominique Poulter
Fairy; Courtier: Gemma Aston
Fairy; Courtier: Guy Hargreaves
Fairy; Courtier: John Baxter
Fairy; Courtier: Joseph Morton
Fairy; Courtier: Matt Patresi
Fairy; Courtier: Michelle Jordan
Fairy; Courtier: Nicola McRoy
Fairy; Courtier: Oscar Pearce
Fairy; Courtier: Sarah Kruger
First Fairy: Ann Hasson
Francis Flute; Peaseblossom: Mark Letheren
Helena: Emily Raymond
Hermia: Monica Dolan
Hippolyta; Titania: Lindsay Duncan
Lysander: Daniel Evans
Nick Bottom: Desmond Barrit
Peter Quince; Mustardseed: John Kane
Philostrate; Puck: Barry Lynch
Principal Fairy; Courtier: Darren Roberts
Principal Fairy; Courtier: Emily Button
Principal Fairy; Courtier: Tim Griggs
Robin Starveling; Cobweb: Robert Gillespie
Snug: Kenn Sabberton
The Boy: Osheen Jones
Theseus; Oberon: Alex Jennings
Tom Snout; Fairy: Howard Crossley
Watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream on streaming video from Amazon