Children’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, The
- Synopsis
- A near-complete version of the play using 350 children from primary schools in Southwark, with no acting experience, as cast, extras and behind-the-scenes helpers. Designed, directed and filmed by Christine Edzard in her studio on Rotherhide. It begins with a group of contemporary schoolchildren watching lifesize puppets perform the play, and gradually some turn into characters they identify with, acting it out in an enchanted wood. Filmed around schoolwork over a period of nine months.
- Language
- English
- Country
- Great Britain
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Colour / Sound
- Year of release
- 2002
- Duration
- 118 mins; 10.644 feet
Credits
- Writer
- William Shakespeare
- Cast
Additional Details
- Production type
- Fiction Films
- Historical period
- Elizabethan
- Plays
- Midsummer Night’s Dream, A
- Subjects
- Drama
- Keywords
- drama in education; schoolchildren; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Multicultural casting; Untrained actors
Notes
- Notes
- Budget $1.2
- Documentation
- Reviewed in the TLS, 29/6/2001
- Reviews
- `Producing The Children’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (2001): A Discussion with Oliver Stockman’. in Hatchuel, Sarah & Vienne-Guerrin, Nathalie (eds). Shakespeare on Screen: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Publications de l’Université de Rouen, 2004, pp115-28. [Includes comments on the children’s experience as actors, the generational and racial codes of the play, and the ethical issue surrounding enlisting untrained children to speak the complicated and sometimes sexually charged lines of Shakespeare’s play without understanding them].
Publisher
- Name
Sands Films
Distributor
- Name
Retail outlets
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "Children’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, The". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av34325 (Accessed 26 Nov 2024)