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Description
Professor Arnold Kettle compares some of the ways 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' has been produced in the theatre and appraises the influence they have on our own interpretation today. Professor Kettl
...e argues that the most pervasive production style is essentially one of the nineteenth century, and he analyses it using paintings by Richard Dadd and Mendelssohn's incidental music. The programme also contains a short section from Max Reinhardt's Hollywood production of 1935 and a long section from an interview with Peter Brook including excerpts from his Royal Shakespeare Company's production at Stratford in 1970.
| 34 | 00:02:53,000 | 00:02:55,000 | Quince: ..he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. |
| 19 | 00:02:54,000 | 00:02:57,000 | (Arnold Kettle) ..who manages like so many mythological goddesses to be… |
| 20 | 00:02:57,000 | 00:03:00,000 | (Arnold Kettle) ..sacred and profane at the same time. |
| 21 | 00:03:01,000 | 00:03:05,000 | We're lucky that we have preserved for us in an unlikely but available form, |
| 22 | 00:03:05,000 | 00:03:10,000 | the essential 19th century way of producing 'The Dream'. |
| 35 | 00:03:05,000 | 00:03:11,000 | Flute (as Thisbe, in a high- pitched voice) Most radiant Pyramus, most lilywhite of hue, |
| 23 | 00:03:10,000 | 00:03:15,000 | Max Reinhardt's film wasn't made until 1935, and of course… |
| 36 | 00:03:12,000 | 00:03:15,000 | of colour like the red rose on triumphant briar, |
| 24 | 00:03:15,000 | 00:03:19,000 | ..it gets effects no stage production could ever achieve. |
| 37 | 00:03:16,000 | 00:03:20,000 | most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, |
| 25 | 00:03:19,000 | 00:03:25,000 | But forget about Mickey Rooney and the other Hollywood stars, but don't forget Mendelssohn… |
| 38 | 00:03:21,000 | 00:03:24,000 | (Flute as Thisbe) ..as true as truest horse that yet would never tire, |
| 26 | 00:03:25,000 | 00:03:29,000 | ..or the fact that the dancing was in the charge of Bronislava Nijinska, |
| 39 | 00:03:25,000 | 00:03:27,000 | (Flute as Thisbe) ..I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. |
| 27 | 00:03:29,000 | 00:03:34,000 | sister of the great Russian dancer . And don't forget that Reinhardt himself was... |
| 40 | 00:03:29,000 | 00:03:32,000 | Quince: Ninus' tomb, man. Ninus. |
| 28 | 00:03:34,000 | 00:03:39,000 | ..a great experimental producer, who earlier had played an exciting part in making… |
| 29 | 00:03:40,000 | 00:03:45,000 | ..Germany a great centre of the drama. It was because of Hitler that he happened to be… |
| 30 | 00:03:45,000 | 00:03:47,000 | producing 'The Dream' in the Hollywood Bowl, |
| 31 | 00:03:48,000 | 00:03:52,000 | and Warner Bros. persuaded him to have a go at filming it. |
| 32 | 00:03:54,000 | 00:04:01,000 | Puck: How now, here comes Oberon ! (fairies screaming and fleeing in terror) |
| 33 | 00:04:04,000 | 00:04:10,000 | Oberon: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania! |
| 34 | 00:04:11,000 | 00:04:19,000 | Titania: What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence. I have forsworn his bed and company. |
| 35 | 00:04:21,000 | 00:04:28,000 | Oberon: Tarry, rash wanton! Do you amend it then? It lies in you. |
| 36 | 00:04:30,000 | 00:04:33,000 | Oberon: Why should Titania cross her Oberon? |
| 37 | 00:04:34,000 | 00:04:39,000 | Oberon: I do but beg a little changeling boy to be my henchman. fairies screaming) |
| 38 | 00:04:40,000 | 00:04:46,000 | Titania: Set your heart at rest. The fairy land buys not the child of me. |
| 39 | 00:04:48,000 | 00:04:53,000 | His mother was a votaress of my order and for her sake do I rear up her boy; |
| 40 | 00:04:53,000 | 00:04:55,000 | and for her sake I will not part with him. |
| 41 | 00:05:00,000 | 00:05:04,000 | Oberon: How long within this wood intend you stay? |
| 42 | 00:05:05,000 | 00:05:08,000 | Titania: Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day. |
| 43 | 00:05:13,000 | 00:05:21,000 | Titania: If you will patiently dance in our round and see our moonlight revels go with us. |
| 44 | 00:05:22,000 | 00:05:25,000 | Titania: If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. |
| 45 | 00:05:25,000 | 00:05:28,000 | Oberon: Give me that boy and I will go with thee. |
| 46 | 00:05:29,000 | 00:05:35,000 | Titania: Not for thy fairy kingdom! Fairies, away. (fairies giggling) |
| 47 | 00:05:50,000 | 00:05:53,000 | (laughter) |
| 17 | 01:01:10,000 | 00:01:14,000 | Bottom: Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the... |
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