First was the Hollow Crown versions of Henry VI's parts, now this version, closer to the original, but still cutting the script by half!
shareNot all of us have 4 hours to spare. If we did we would watch it in the theatre.
It's that man again!!
Cutting the scripts in half for television and film makes Shakespeare's work accessible for many more people than it otherwise would be. This is a good thing surely.
Branagh's Hamlet is the only uncut Shakespeare on film that I know of.
I thought this Dream was an absolute triumph. Worthy of positive comparison with the 1935 version.
Positively dire.
Unrecogniseable characters and the sound (in both formats offered) reminiscent of the pressure variation at the end of a long haul flight.
What was Tennant thinking, he had the chance to make something truly memorable.
now this version, closer to the original, but still cutting the script by half!Closer to the original??!!
Indeed - but it was rather fun, wasn't it? Most of the deviations are funniest to those who know the script well - like the brief moment when the potion-addled Demetrius ogled Lysander instead of Helena, till Puck adjusted them. That really made me laugh.
It's always vaguely bothered me, btw, that Demetrius is never un-potioned, but goes through the rest of his life, presumably, in a drug-induced dream of love.
that was one of my favourite bits, especially as it was brief and not done to death to maximise the comedy
sharethe brief moment when the potion-addled Demetrius ogled Lysander instead of Helena, till Puck adjusted themI agree that that bit of business was very funny, added to the richness the plot complications, was entirely in keeping with the mood and, crucially, was brief (this being the soul of wit, &c, &c). But I think that what they did with Theseus, Hipplyta and Titania was to impose a quite different drama and a quite different "moral" on the play, something that absolutely didn't arise naturally out of it. I guess that's OK for some, but it made me uncomfortable.
If Shakespeare wrote an episode of Dr Who, this would have been it. Except maybe Theseus would have been exterminated by Daleks. And Oberon would have been more of a Silurian.
It would rate in my Top Ten Dr Who Episodes. Maybe Top Five.
Very enjoyable. Who wants, after all, to see the play done the same way every time.
Well said, Alfa, excellent!
A Dr Who take on The Tempest would be fun, too. Maybe the Beeb will do a series.
I agree it was enjoyable enough, and it certainly had a personal style, which is a rare commodity these days, but I am not a Doctor Who afficionado, so wasn't part of the target audience. (I gave up on the Doctor when a frothy Jon Pertwee took over from the darker Patrick Troughton.)
And I don't want to see Shakespeare done the same way every time, either. But I much prefer it when difference arises out of new insights into the play (thinking of, say, Derek Jarman's Tempest), not from a broadly painted, allegorical fairy-tale grafted onto it.
Call me Ishmael...
I think there's more room for manoeuvre in MSND than The Tempest and didn't mind the huge amount of manip quite so much. But I agree that you still have to communicate at least some Shakespeare's vision so casting Hermione and Hermia as assistants and losing their suitors almost entirely wasn't the best idea. Kindda lost the subplot.
I'd like to see what Guillermo de Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) could do with it.
There's a new film about to drop, with an odd looking cast. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5659816/reference
And I don't want to see Shakespeare done the same way every time, either. But I much prefer it when difference arises out of new insights into the play (thinking of, say, Derek Jarman's Tempest), not from a broadly painted, allegorical fairy-tale grafted onto it.