A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959 American TV play)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1959 TV play based on the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare directed by Fletcher Markle. It was based on the famous 1959 stage production of the play directed by Peter Hall.^[1][2]

The production was filmed for American television with Fletcher Markle flying to Britain to make it for Hubbell Robinson Productions. "It's very thrilling to be behind a historical project," said Markle.^[3] Filming started 20 November 1959.^[4][5]

However the program was not shown. It was screened in 2012.^[6]

According to Laughton's biographer, Simon Callow, "Even detractors of Laughton’s stage Bottom grudgingly admit that on film he is glorious. The predominant impression is of energy — passionate, earthy energy — and appetite; but beside the physical energy is an enormous imaginative turmoil, so that Bottom’s desire to play all the parts comes not from arrogance or greed, but from sudden visions of himself in the various roles."^[7]

Callow also called it "a very decent account of the production, revealing the loveliness of Lila de Nobili’s designs, and doing justice to all the play’s strata, though, for obvious reasons, the mechanicals get the best of it. As an historical document, the film is a delight."^[8]

Hall later revived the play in 1962 with Judi Dench taking over from Mary Ure as Titania. And he directed another film of the play in 1968.^[9]