A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Setting – deep in the future year 40, 321

The forest is actually a nature planet rather than a normal forest.

Court of Athens is a huge space station.

Hermia + Lysander take a shuttle craft to the planet to escape.

Proscenium arch- bit basic but the staging would emphasize the distance between the audience and
the characters, my production is so far fetched and grandiose that the audience shouldn’t be able to
focus on relating to these characters.

More of a focus on the political themes of the play as sci-fi has been an especially important conduit
for that throughout the history of the genre.

The audience is constantly aware of the fact this is a play and should focus more on the message
that they are taking out of it, such as transformation, jealousy and loves difficulty.

Any aspects of the play to do with magic can be interpreted as more of alien interference, rather
than magic.

Potential challenges – naming of certain areas and how that can be attributed to Earth, but simply I
think they mention them in such a vague way like when Oberon points out Lysanders Athenian
clothing that could simply be a space station rather than a place on Earth.

Casting-

Oberon – Anthony Head

Tytania-

Puck- Matt Lucas

Bottom -Matt Berry

Lysander – David Tennant

Hermia –

Demetrius – Michael Sheen

Helena- Olivia Coleman

Transformations of Lysander and Demetrius falling in love with Helana over Hermia.

Another poignant source of conflict

Puck transforming Bottom.

Significant one of the big driving points of conflict with Tytania falling in love with him and effectively
being humiliated.

Initially transformations cause fear and conflict but end up restoring order and ironically solving
things, by the end of the night everyone is back together and there is a happy ending.

1. Both, I do believe the play and a lot of Shakespeare’s works are rooted in the language and
views of the time, so inherently carry racist attitudes while also being intended as part of the
play and its meaning, so should be read with this understanding.
2. Lightness is held in high esteem and respect and loved, and darkness is used as more of a
negative like when Lysander insults Hermia.

1. In the play itself were lead to a happy ending, with the threats in the way of the lovers
no longer being relevant or affecting them at all by the end.
2.