Dream On
Did you see Russell T(he man who resurrected Dr Who) Davies' production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night, Dear Reader? In case you didn't, but are interested, it's available here for another 29 days (as of writing) should you have a spare 90 minutes. If you haven't seen it, but would like to, Dear Reader, I suggest you skip this entry!
Maxine Peake as Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Davies certainly managed to assemble a fairly stellar cast, from Bernard Cribbins and Richard Wilson, to Maxine Peake (as Titania), Elaine Page (Mistress Quince) and John Hannah (Theseus), with plenty of lesser known mortals and fairies. The cast was 'inclusive' too, though noticeably light on Indian subcontinent and Asian (looking) actors, if such things bother you. I don't know, perhaps they should bother us all. The main thing, I reckon, was that they can all act!
So, the production. Hmmm, as with many of Russell T's productions for TV, it was heavy on Special Effects - not just fairies flying around but CGI views of 'Athens' and the Forest among other things. Come to think of it, I'm sure he used one of the Dr Who sets at one point. No, not the Tardis! There was, I thought, too much gratuitous running around in the middle. They didn't need to have shots of various actors running through the forest, or at least not for so long.
Philostrate (Elliot Levey) and Theseus (John Hannah)
I'm not sure about setting Theseus' court as an almost Nazi state but with iPads. It was interesting. And I don't remember Theseus popping his jackboots at the end in the original script. But then, the original script contains very few stage directions, if any.
I'm also pretty certain there wasn't the homo-erotic content in the original either. But when we 'did' The Dream at secondary school we were twelve and homo-erotic acts had only just been legalised. No way would you talk about such things with twelve-year-olds in an English class! (Not complaining, just mentioning!)
The Rude Mechanicals were a bit of a delight, with Matt Lucas as Bottom wanting to take every part in their 'play' and totally hamming up his part in the actual 'production'. Fisayo Akinade (far left) gave a wonderful performance as Flute as Thisbe mourning the death of 'her' Piramus.
The Rude Mechanicals: Flute (Fisayo Akinade), Snug (Javone Prince), Starveling (Richard Wilson), Mistress Quince (Elaine Paige), & Snout (Bernard Cribbins)
And, of course, Bottom. 'Translated'. That's Matt Lucas under all that hair. Come to think of it, his Bottom had hair too! (No, I'm leaving that in, it's in context!)
Russel kept up a snappy pace throughout, to keep within the BBC's allotted 90 minute slot (plus all the running around the forest and Theseus dying). I think it might have benefitted from going a little slower, but there you are.
On the whole, we enjoyed the production. And I got quite a bit of knitting done!
If you watched/will watch this film, hopeyou enjoy(ed) it. Y'all have a good day now!
Maxine Peake as Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Davies certainly managed to assemble a fairly stellar cast, from Bernard Cribbins and Richard Wilson, to Maxine Peake (as Titania), Elaine Page (Mistress Quince) and John Hannah (Theseus), with plenty of lesser known mortals and fairies. The cast was 'inclusive' too, though noticeably light on Indian subcontinent and Asian (looking) actors, if such things bother you. I don't know, perhaps they should bother us all. The main thing, I reckon, was that they can all act!
So, the production. Hmmm, as with many of Russell T's productions for TV, it was heavy on Special Effects - not just fairies flying around but CGI views of 'Athens' and the Forest among other things. Come to think of it, I'm sure he used one of the Dr Who sets at one point. No, not the Tardis! There was, I thought, too much gratuitous running around in the middle. They didn't need to have shots of various actors running through the forest, or at least not for so long.
Philostrate (Elliot Levey) and Theseus (John Hannah)
I'm not sure about setting Theseus' court as an almost Nazi state but with iPads. It was interesting. And I don't remember Theseus popping his jackboots at the end in the original script. But then, the original script contains very few stage directions, if any.
I'm also pretty certain there wasn't the homo-erotic content in the original either. But when we 'did' The Dream at secondary school we were twelve and homo-erotic acts had only just been legalised. No way would you talk about such things with twelve-year-olds in an English class! (Not complaining, just mentioning!)
The Rude Mechanicals were a bit of a delight, with Matt Lucas as Bottom wanting to take every part in their 'play' and totally hamming up his part in the actual 'production'. Fisayo Akinade (far left) gave a wonderful performance as Flute as Thisbe mourning the death of 'her' Piramus.
The Rude Mechanicals: Flute (Fisayo Akinade), Snug (Javone Prince), Starveling (Richard Wilson), Mistress Quince (Elaine Paige), & Snout (Bernard Cribbins)
And, of course, Bottom. 'Translated'. That's Matt Lucas under all that hair. Come to think of it, his Bottom had hair too! (No, I'm leaving that in, it's in context!)
Russel kept up a snappy pace throughout, to keep within the BBC's allotted 90 minute slot (plus all the running around the forest and Theseus dying). I think it might have benefitted from going a little slower, but there you are.
On the whole, we enjoyed the production. And I got quite a bit of knitting done!
If you watched/will watch this film, hopeyou enjoy(ed) it. Y'all have a good day now!