http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qbqvd

www.a2lit.weebly.comhttp://www.pinterest.com/vakeswick/a-midsummer-nights-dream/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dtvpl/features/dream All available episodes.Director – Nancy MecklerDesigner – Katrina Lindsay Lighting – Wolfgang GöbbelComposer - Keith Clouston Puck – Arsher AliFairy – Maya BarcotFairy – Christopher ChiltonFairy – Theo OgundipeFairy – Lanre MalaoluFairy – Imogen DoelEgeus – Kammy DarweishQuince – Christopher GodwinFlute – Michael Grady-HallDemetrius – Alex HassellHelena – Lucy Briggs-OwenSnug – Felix HayesHermia – Matti HoughtonLysander – Nathaniel Martello-WhiteHippolyta/Titania – Pippa NixonSnout - Chiké OkonkwoStarveling – Timothy SpeyerTheseus/Oberon – Jo Stone-FewingsFairy – Amanda Wilkin Bottom – Marc Wootton

OberonHelena

HelenaAndDemetrius Titania and Bottom

“Nancy Meckler's production starts awkwardly, but it undergoes a transformation that echoes the play itself and induces a sense of collective ecstasy.”http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/aug/05/midsummer-nights-dream-review

Michael Billington, The Guardian

“When Hippolyta actually spits at Theseus to express her disapproval of his treatment of the young lovers, one anticipates a modishly dark production.”“The mechanicals are terrific, generating a warm sense of male friendship, and the great moment when Bottom – a splendidly bumptious but lovable Marc Wootton – returns from his forest adventures proves deeply affecting.”“There’s a strong sexual spark between Jo Stone-Fewings and Pippa Nixon, respectively doubling as Theseus and Oberon and Hippolyta and Titania, and you emerge from this exhilarating production both weak with laughter and unexpectedly moved.”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/8684963/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-RSC-Stratford-upon-Avon-review.html

Charles Spencer, The Telegraph

“The colourful Oz-like world of Titania, Oberon, Puck and Peaseblossom is itself a dream. A dream that belongs to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. This alternative world is Hippolyta’s only means of escape. Here, she resignedly learns to accept her plight. The tradition of double-casting Hippolyta with Titania, and Theseus with Oberon, becomes the overarching reasoning behind Nancy Meckler’s intelligent and entertaining production. Hippolyta is Theseus’s captive. He must woo his unwilling prize. The commodification of women in a male-dominated society becomes the central theme of the play.”“The society in question is the testosterone world of 1960s Athens, reproduced in microcosm in the play’s subterranean setting.”“So, Hippolyta rejects her conqueror. She falls asleep in a leather chair upstage. As her escaping dream unfolds, she is woken be a troupe of fairies to be revealed as Titania, their queen. Titania’s fairy followers are like teenage partygoers who have imbibed too many alcopops.”“Puck may be the malicious creature of the woods, but his principal victim is the lowly Bottom, played by the comic actor, Marc Wootton. At times reminiscent of a cross between Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams, all rolled up in a manic Jack Black, Wootton’s Bottom offers a star turn that rules the stage.”http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/RSCdream2011-rev

Kevin Quarmby, British Theatre Guide

“The stand-out performance of the piece was Lucy Briggs-Owen as a spectacularly dotty Helena. Her interpretation of her character's fawning devotion despite frequent knockbacks was by turns hilarious and touching. Her interaction with Matti Houghton's Hermia drew focus to the simmering tension between the two, but also added an interesting element of hero worship.”http://www.inpotentia.co.uk/2011/09/theatre-review-midsummer-nights-dream.html

Emma Hunneyball

“The lighting enhances all the “dream” sequences and is of the highest standard (designed by Wolfgang Gobbel).”“Puck and Oberon are a double act. If the balance of the production goes to Oberon, Puck has to fit in, and the role lessens.”http://peterviney.wordpress.com/stage/a-midsummer-nights-dream-rsc-2011/

Peter Viney