1970 Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
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The 1970 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' was directed by
Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...
, and is often known simply as Peter Brook's ''Dream.'' It opened in the
Royal Shakespeare Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespea ...
at Stratford-upon-Avon and then moved to the
Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in th ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's West End in 1971. It was taken on a world tour in 1972–1973. Brook's production of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' for the RSC is often described as one of the 20th century's most influential productions of
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, as it rejected many traditional ideas about the staging of classic
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
.


Concept

Shakespeare's play is set in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and a fairy-inhabited forest nearby. Brook's aim was to reject the
19th-century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...
traditions of realism and illusionism in the theatre, and focus instead on locating the play in "the heightened realm of
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
". He also wanted to liberate the play from encrusted "''bad'' tradition" so that the actors could feel that they were encountering the text for the first time. As such, he avoided any realist scenery or props. Instead, the set, designed by
Sally Jacobs Sally Jacobs (née Rich, 5 November 1932 – 16 August 2020) was a British stage designer and director. Early life Jacobs was born in Whitechapel, London on 5 November 1932. Her parents were Bernard and Esther Rich (née Bart), a furrier and mi ...
, was a simple white box, with no ceiling and two doors. In Stratford, black drapes were hung above the box to hide the stage machinery; on tour, Brook decided to remove them, leaving stagehands and lighting technicians visible. The purpose of this was to return the stage to the simplicity of the Elizabethan theatre, in which there was little scenery and the sense of location was generated by the poet's words. However, this approach was blended with modern elements: the trees of the forest were represented by giant slinky toys, and Titania's bower was a huge red feather. The fairy magic was represented by
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...
tricks. For example, the fairies entered on
trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...
bars, and the love potion that Puck fetches was a spinning plate on a rod, which Puck handed to Theseus from a trapeze fifteen feet above the stage. When Bottom turned into an ass, he acquired not the traditional ass's head, but a clown's red nose. The costumes were non-Athenian and non-English Renaissance. Instead, they were a colourful mixture of elements from different times and places. Oberon wore a purple satin gown. Puck wore a yellow jumpsuit from the Chinese circus. The mechanicals were dressed as 20th-century factory workers. The young lovers looked like 1960s "
flower children Flower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially among the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and the surrounding area during the Summer of Love in 1967. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribute ...
" in
tie-dye Tie-dye is a term used to describe a number of resist dyeing techniques and the resulting dyed products of these processes. The process of tie-dye typically consists of folding, twisting, pleating, or crumpling fabric or a garment, before binding ...
shirts and ankle-length dresses. There were also unusual casting choices. It had been traditional for the fairies to be played by children or women, but Brook cast adult men instead, an effect described as "disconcertingly strange and threatening", and which made the forest a more frightening, adult place than in earlier productions. Brook also decided to double the roles of
Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describ ...
/
Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...
,
Hippolyta In Classical Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte (; grc-gre, Ἱππολύτη ''Hippolytē'') was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares' ''zoster'', the Gr ...
/ Titania, Philostrate/ Puck and Egeus/Quince. This was partly to create a smaller, more intimate company, but also to suggest that the fairies were not so much different characters, as different aspects of the human characters' personalities, an idea signified when Theseus and Hippolyta 'became' Oberon and Titania simply by putting on robes. Brook believed that Theseus and Hippolyta have failed to achieve "the true union as a couple" and work through their quarrels as Oberon and Titania. The production emphasized, to a level never before seen, the supposed sexual undercurrents of the story of Titania's infatuation with Bottom after he turns into an ass. Brook was influenced by Jan Kott's study of the play in '' Shakespeare Our Contemporary'', in which Kott notes the
phallic A phallus is a penis (especially when Erection, erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimesis, mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically— ...
properties of the donkey, and argues that Oberon deliberately degrades Titania by exposing her to this monstrous sexuality. In Brook's staging, Bottom entered Titania's bower carried by the fairies, one of whom thrust his upraised arm between Bottom's legs to represent a phallus. In a jab at more traditional stagings, the sequence was accompanied by
Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
's
Wedding March Music is often played at wedding celebrations, including during the ceremony and at festivities before or after the event. The music can be performed live by instrumentalists or vocalists or may use pre-recorded songs, depending on the format o ...
, a piece of music originally written to be played as an intermezzo between Acts IV and V, but often used in more genteel productions for the final marriage scene of the play. Despite the disturbing undercurrents of this view of sexuality, many audience members found the play witty and affectionate in its treatment of sex, in tune with the spirit of 1960s permissiveness. The end of the production stressed the idea of community between audience and actors. As Oberon spoke his final lines about sunrise, the house lights slowly rose, so that the audience was visible to each other while Puck spoke the play's closing speech. Upon the line "Give me your hands, if we be friends", the entire cast rushed into the auditorium to shake hands with the audience, turning the theatre into a "lovefest".


Responses

The production was extremely popular, both in terms of box office and reviews. On the opening night, the audience gave a standing ovation at the interval. The majority of critics were in raptures over the production. It was a box office success, and was instantly recognized as a theatrical landmark, and the product of a great artist: the '' Sunday Times'' reviewer called it "the sort of thing one only sees once in a lifetime, and then only from a man of genius". There were naysayers, and the commonest criticism was that the production distracted the viewer from the play by prioritizing Brook's cleverness over Shakespeare's; one reviewer called it a "self-indulgent display of directorial gimmickry". Theatre historian John Russell Brown felt that the play was constrained by Brook's eccentric personal interpretations. However, even those critics who disliked the staging choices praised the verse-speaking for its clarity and freshness. One Shakespearean scholar supposedly watched it with his eyes shut, loving the acting, but hating the visuals. Theatre historian Gary Jay Williams says the production was so influential that it became "the reference point for Shakespearean performance practice in general over the next decade". It encouraged the exploration of the play's darker, adult themes, which had been overshadowed by the tradition treating it as a play for children. So innovative and distinctive was the production that it almost became a problem for directors, because "the burden of reinventing the play now fell on every director." However, it opened the door to much greater experimentation, so that "twenty-five years after Brook's staging, the diversity of approaches is staggering to review".


Cast

The casting changed somewhat during the production's Stratford and London runs and its world tour. The original 1970 Stratford cast was as follows: *
Alan Howard Alan Howard may refer to: * Alan Howard (actor) (1937–2015), English actor * Alan Howard (cricketer) (1909–1993), English cricketer * Alan Howard (engineer) (1905–1966), American engineer * Alan Howard (hedge fund manager) (born 1963), hedge f ...
as
Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describ ...
/
Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...
*
Sara Kestelman Sara Kestelman (born 12 May 1944) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Lady Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Grey's mother, in the 1986 film '' Lady Jane'', as well as for providing the voice of Kreia in '' Star Wars Knights of the Old ...
as
Hippolyta In Classical Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte (; grc-gre, Ἱππολύτη ''Hippolytē'') was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares' ''zoster'', the Gr ...
/ Titania * John Kane as Philostrate/ Puck *
Philip Locke Roy James "Philip" Locke (29 March 192819 April 2004) was an English actor who had roles in film and television. He is perhaps best known for his part in the James Bond film '' Thunderball'' as Largo's personal assistant and chief henchman, Var ...
as Egeus/Quince *
Christopher Gable Christopher Michael Gable, CBE (13 March 194023 October 1998) was an English ballet dancer, choreographer and actor. Life and career Dance career Born in London, Gable studied at the Royal Ballet School, joining the Sadler's Wells Royal ...
as Lysander *
Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...
as Demetrius * Mary Rutherford as Hermia * Frances de la Tour as Helena * David Waller as
Nick Bottom Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' who provides comic relief throughout the play. A weaver by trade, he is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of a donkey by the elusive Puck. Bott ...
* Glynne Edwards as Francis Flute *
Norman Rodway Norman John Frank Rodway (7 February 1929 – 13 March 2001) was an Anglo-Irish actor. Early life Rodway was born at the family home, Elsinore (named after the castle where Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' is set), on Coliemore Road, Dalkey, Dublin ...
as Snout the tinker * Terrence Hardiman as Starveling the tailor * Barry Stanton as Snug the joiner The following changes were made for the 1971 London run. * Terence Taplin as Lysander *
Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors ...
as Snout * Philip Manikum as Starveling The following changes were made for the 1973 tour: ''Designing Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream'', Brook/Jacobs, Royal Shakespeare Company, January 1973
''AHDS Performance Archive'' *
Gemma Jones Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility (film), Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the Bridget Jones (film series), ''Bridget Jo ...
as Hippolyta/Titania *Robert Langdon Lloyd as Philostrate/Puck * Denis Carey as Egeus/Quince *Barry Stanton as Bottom * George Sweeney as Flute *
Malcolm Rennie Malcolm Forbes Rennie (born 17 February 1947) is a British actor. Early life Rennie was born on 17 February 1947, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Career He has often played authority figures, including judges and police officers in ''Coronation Stree ...
as Snout *
Hugh Keays-Byrne Hugh Keays-Byrne (18 May 1947 – 2 December 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the ''Mad Max'' franchise ...
as Snug * Zhivila Roche as Hermia * Philip Sayer as Lysander * Jennie Stoller as Helena *
David Meyer David Meyer (born 24 July 1947) is an English actor. He is the twin of Anthony Meyer who has often appeared alongside him in film. He is best known for his role as a knife-throwing circus performer and assassin in the 1983 James Bond film ''Octo ...
as Demetrius *Richard Moore as Starveling Musicians 1970 Robin Weatherall, percussion Tony Mcvey, percussion
Martin Best Martin Best (born 13 April 1942) is an English singer, lutenist, guitarist, and composer. Best has been active mainly in early music including Renaissance music, minstrel songs and the French troubadour traditions, in works related to Shakespea ...
, Guitar Musicians 1971 Robin Weatherall, percussion Tony Mcvey, percussion Edward Flower, guitar Musicians 1973 Robin Weatherall, percussion and trumpet Tony Mcvey, percussion and trombone John Zaradin, guitar


References

Royal Shakespeare Company programs 1970, 1971, 1973


External links


Images from the production
from the AHDS performance archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Rsc Production Of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970) 1970 plays Midsummer Night's Dream 1970 RSC RSC 1970 in England 1970s in theatre