Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970)

Cast & Crew Alan Howard as Theseus/Oberon Glynne Edwards as Francis Flute Sara Kestelman as Hippolyta/Titania Patrick Stewart as Snout the tinker John Kane as Philostrate/Puck Terrence Hardiman as Starveling the tailor Philip Locke as Egeus/Quince Barry Stanton as Snug the joiner Christopher Gable as Lysander Ben Kingsley as Demetrius Director – Peter Brook Mary Rutherford as Hermia Frances de la Tour as Helena David Waller as Nick Bottom

Set

Brook's aim was to reject the 19th-century traditions of realism and illusionism in the theatre. He also wanted to liberate the play from "bad tradition" so that the actors could feel that they were encountering the text for the first time. He avoided any realist scenery or props. Instead, the set was a simple white box, with no ceiling and two doors. On tour, Brook decided leave 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. It 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. From the galleries the actors when they were not ‘on-stage’ could look down and observe the action of the play

Fairies The fairy magic was represented by circus tricks. The fairies entered on trapeze 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 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 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.

Act V Scene I The fairies bless the court and the marriages. The actors the moved into the auditorium, shaking hands with the audience as a literal interpretation of Puck's words, 'Give me your hands'.

Critical Reception “The sort of thing one only sees once in a lifetime, and then only from a man of genius“ The Sunday Times “The naked harshness of this environment is used by Mr Brook as a means to expose the actors' words and emotions”. John Barber, The Telegraph “The lovers were as exposed and as distraught as modern adolescents” Barber “The ingenious, theatrical construction had to be taken – or rejected – as a transformation of life” John Russell Brown “From the friction between the actor’s creativity and the spectator’s imagination, a clear flame is kindled” Meyerhold “Once in a while, once in a very rare while, a theatrical production arrives that is going to be talked about as long as there is a theatre, a production that, for good or ill, is going to exert a major influence on the contemporary stage” Clive Barnes “We need desperately to experience magic” Brook