1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Romance, Magic and Madness

2. Modern Versions
Taming of the Shrew- Ten Things I hate about you 1999, Deliver us from Eva (2003)
Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) can’t date Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) until her shrewish older sister Katherina (Julia Stiles) dates, so they set her up with bad boy Patrick (Heath Ledger). Bianca is Bianca, Katherina is Katherina, Patrick is Petruchio, and Cameron is Lucentio — Cameron even disguises himself as a language tutor, just as Lucentio does in Taming of the Shrew

3. Twelfth Night- She’s the Man 2006
Like her namesake Viola in Twelfth Night, She’s the Man’s Viola (Amanda Bynes) disguises herself as a boy. She takes the name Sebastian, who is Viola’s twin brother in Twelfth Night. In addition to playing soccer, Viola also romances Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum) — it probably goes without saying that Duke Orsino is the film’s version of the play’s Duke of Illyria, Orsino.

4. Romeo and Juliet– Warm Bodies 2013
It doesn’t get much more star-crossed than a zombie and a human falling in love. Warm Bodies is another loose Shakespeare adaptation, but it focuses on the forbidden love between zombie R (Nicholas Hoult) and the woman he can never be with, Julie (Teresa Palmer). The names are a tip-off — Rob Corddry plays R’s friend Marcus, which sounds a lot like Mercutio.

5. Henry IV and V My own Private Idaho 1991
While My Own Private Idaho was not always intended as a Shakespearean adaptation, writer-director Gus Van Sant was inspired by Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight, which centers on Shakespeare’s recurring character of Falstaff. Here, Falstaff becomes Bob Pigeon (William Richert), mentor to young street hustlers Scott (Keanu Reeves), as Prince Hal, and Mike (River Phoenix), as Poins.

6. The Tempest- Forbidden Planet 1956
Instead of getting stranded on an island, the space crew in Forbidden Planet ends up on a seemingly utopian planet. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) is a stand-in for Prospero, keeping a protective hold over his daughter Alta (Anne Francis) — Miranda in The Tempest. As in the original story, the daughter falls in love with one of the outsiders despite her father’s objections.

7. Macbeth- Men of Respect 1990
Macbeth as a gritty mob drama feels like an obvious choice — and it was. Long before Men of Respect, the 1955 film Joe MacBeth did just that. But Men of Respect is a little less obvious. John Turturro stars as Macbeth stand-in Mike Battaglia, who — at the urging of his Lady Macbeth-esque wife Ruthie (Katherine Borowitz) — plans a hostile mob takeover.

8. Hamlet- The Lion King
The Lion King was inspired by Hamlet, yes, but also by the Biblical stories of Joseph and Moses. Like so many Disney movies, it’s an amalgamation of different mythologies. But Scar killing his brother Mufasa to become king is taken directly from Hamlet. The characters of Timon and Pumbaa also serve as fairly obvious substitutes for Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

9. Midsummer Night’s Dream- Get Over It 2001
In Get Over It, the high school students are putting on a musical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, making the connection between the two works overt. But as in the similar gay indie film Were the World Mine, the drama onstage begins to play out in the larger narrative as Berke (Ben Foster) falls for Kelly (Kirsten Dunst) while pursuing Allison (Melissa Sagemiller).

10. *A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Written down in 1595 for an important wedding
Published 1600
Ideas from general reading Plutarch, Knight’s Legend, Metamorphosis, Diana and The Golden Ass

11. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ovid the source for the story of
Pyramus and Thisbe, the play-within-a-play in
A Midsummer Night’s DreamOvid

12. *A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Romantic Comedy
An enchanted moonlit forest
Two pairs of lovers
A troop of inept amateur actors
A feuding pair of supernatural beings
A love potion

13. *Midsummer Night
One of the nights of the year when sprites were especially powerful.
People believed flowers gathered on Midsummer Night could work magic
A time when people dreamed of their true loves and sometimes went insane.

14. *A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Midsummer night is the night before the 24th June and in Shakespeare’s day it was always celebrated with festivals, dances, pageants and general merry making!
Students copy down Competentce and LO. Encourage students to attempt extension tasks.

15. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The characters in the pageants were fairies, goblins, witches and devils who could cast spells, change people into birds or animals and do all kinds of other extraordinary things.

16. *A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare followed the custom of his day by setting the play in a fairy world.
Most people at the time believed in witchcraft and the supernatural.

17. An Enchanted Wood
The play takes place in a wood near the city of Athens in Greece. It is unlikely that Shakespeare ever went to Athens himself but he will have studied Greek and Roman history at school.
Students copy down Competentce and LO. Encourage students to attempt extension tasks.

18. Summary
The play centres around the adventures of four young lovers, a group of amateur actors and their interactions with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest.

19. *Four Story Lines Marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta
Young Lovers from Athens
Bottom’s troupe of actors and their play
Feuding Fairies

20. *A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Characters
Oberon
Titania
Theseus
Hippolyta
The Fairies
The Athenians
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Mote
Puck
Egeus
Bottom
Quince
Hermia
Helena
The Mechanicals
Demetrius
Lysander
Snug
Flute
Snout
Starvelling

21. The Athenians Theseus, Duke of Athens
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and betrothed of Theseus
Egeus, father of Hermia, forces Hermia to marry Demetrius
Lysander, in love with Hermia and Helena at different times of the play.
Helena, in love with Demetrius
Demetrius, in love with Hermia and Helena at different times of the play.
Hermia, in love with Lysander
Philostrate, Master of the Revels for Theseus

22. The Supernatural Characters
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Puck, a.k.a. Robin Goodfellow, servant to Oberon
Titania's fairy servants (her "train")(Wait on Bottom):
Peaseblossom, fairy
Cobweb, fairy
Moth, fairy
Mustardseed, fairy

23. The Actors (also called The Mechanicals)
Peter Quince, carpenter, who leads the troupe.
Nick Bottom, weaver; Bottom is turned into a donkey and is loved by Titania, he plays Pyramus in the troupe's production of "Pyramus and Thisbe".
Francis Flute, the bellows-mender who plays Thisbe.
Robin Starveling, the tailor who plays Moonshine.
Tom Snout, the tinker who plays Wall.
Snug, the joiner who plays a Lion.

24. Theseus and Hippolyta
Shakespeare borrowed the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta from Greek mythology.
Theseus was the national hero of Athens. He was a friend of Heracles (Hercules) and the survivor of many adventures, including his slaying of the Minotaur, a creature half man and half bull.
Hippolyta was Queen of the Amazons, a group of female warriors. Theseus took her prisoner and then married her.

25. Storyline One Theseus and Hippolyta
Conflict prior to the play and its resolution
Theseus and Hippolyta are engaged because Theseus conquered the Amazons and basically helped himself to their queen.

26. Summary
The story takes place in Midsummer and is a complex joke featuring Hermia & Lysander and Helena & Demetrius.

27. *Storyline Two
Grumpy old father blocks the love affair between a young man and a young woman.
Complications and confusions
Set in Athens- birthplace of great literature
Two pairs of lovers become lost in a dark wood
Fall under the power of sprites
Finally, after some dramatic reversal, the lovers are united.

28. * Summary
Their romances are confused and complicated still further by entering the forest where Oberon, the King of the Fairies and his Queen, Titania, live.

29. Summary
Puck is a major character who is full of mischief and tricks.

30. Storyline Three Feuding Fairies Oberon and Titania argue about a child
Oberon plays a trick on Titania involving a love potion which complicates everything

31. *Summary
Other visitors to the enchanted forest include Bottom the weaver and his friends Snug, Snout, Quince and Flute, the amateur dramatists who want to rehearse their terrible but hilarious version of the play ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’.

32. Storyline Four Play within a play
Pyramus and Thisbe––silly, funny, comically clumsy writing, poor staging, cheap costumes, and awful acting.
Oberon, the fairy king, intervenes
He becomes the mad director, stage managing the passions of others for his own amusement and pleasure.

33. *Themes Relationships, Love, marriage, friendship
Passion, obstacles to love, loyalty
Magic, supernatural
Dreams, sleep, illusions, imagination, reality
Music and dance

34. A Midsummer Night’s Dream poses profound Questions
What is love?
How and why do people fall in and out of love?
Are lovers in control of themselves and their destinies?
Which is more real, the “daylight” world of reason and law or the “nighttime” world of passion and chaos?

35. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Consider the following questions and discuss with your partner:
Would you let your parents choose your friends?
Would you marry someone to make your parents happy?
Should you marry for love or money?
If your friend told you in confidence that they were planning to run away would you tell or keep it a secret?
Should girls be able to ask boys out?