A Midsummer Night's Dream

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.

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.

Watched this production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', one of Shakespeare's best plays, with mixed to intrigued expectations. The cast is an immensely talented one, Matt Lucas is a bit take or leave for me but have liked Maxine Peake and John Hannah in a lot of things. Have enjoyed some of Russell T Davies' previous work. Was a bit worried though as to whether Davies would be a good fit for adapting Shakespeare and also while there are many great non-traditional performances around there are settings that sound wrong on paper and this was one of them.

Actually though, the setting worked surprisingly well and this 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' turned out to be very enjoyable. Was not actually expecting to enjoy it so much, as the setting (a specific one in the play) sounded so jarring and a lot on paper sounded wrong, and it is not for those that like their productions traditional and unabridged. Am not meaning this in a bad way, actually am mostly a traditionalist and the question of cuts is dependent on how many and how much they'll harm the drama, yet have always been open to new concepts. If one judges it on its own merits without prejudice they may be surprised.

Is this a perfect adaptation of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'? Not quite. The ending certainly is colourful and done with spirit, but for my tastes it was rather overblown too from trying to do more than it needed to and overlong.

Some of the sound quality could have been better too, which was quite underpowered and didn't always make the dialogue have enough clarity.

Which is a shame actually because the text in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is fantastic, it made me laugh hard frequently and brought a sincere lump to my throat at points too. There are cuts and playing around in this production, but not done in a way that affects the drama's cohesion or energy. Which is a relief because 'A Midsummer Night's Dream's' story is complicated at times. A story that is staged here with a lot of spirit and charm and despite the setting being different the spirit of the play remains the same surprisingly.

The modern and very political setting had a real danger of jarring too much or being heavy-handed, which was one of the main reservations people had when first hearing of it. Modern settings of very traditional plays do not always work due to distaste and having too many things that add nothing, but some have done due to it being intelligently staged, compelling and because the spirit of the work in question remains. The case with this 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', there is a 'Doctor Who' influence but not too much in a way that it becomes too much of that and not enough of Shakespeare. Moreover, the setting looks good, especially the costumes and make-up while the scenery has colour and grit. The special effects are not too 'Doctor Who'-ish and don't look cheap.

Have nothing to criticise the cast for, who all seem to be having fun. John Hannah is a menacing Thesus and one of the most interesting interpretations of the role seen by me in a long time and ever. Maxine Peake is a witty and enchanting Titania, while Lucas is in his hilarious element as Bottom. The four lovers have great comic timing and pathos, which makes it easy to get behind them and their plight. The character relationships are always interesting, especially between Thesus and Hippolyta, and there were a few insightful touches that caused controversy before airing but were a lot more tasteful than they seemed on paper. Including a particularly controversial kiss and a brilliant 'A Comedy of Errors' joke.

In conclusion, surprisingly very enjoyable. Everything that got people wary and cross before it aired actually came over far better than expected. 8/10

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.

This is a kind of fantastical story where fairies overthrow neo-nazis (and you know what? Good for them), but it's not the play as Shakespeare wrote it, though it does make copious use of his language in new contexts that some people might find interesting.

If you're looking for something that's going to warm your heart and make you cheer for cast of racially-diverse, queer-coded good guys, this might do it for you. If you want to watch A Midsummer's Night Dream, you've got to look elsewhere.

The whole time I was thinking about the poor students who will put this on instead of reading the play and then give their English teachers aneurysms when they recount plot events.