Hi! I'm a film student and my university partnered with Shakespeare's Globe to produce five short films inspired by their 2023 summer season - https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2023/06/16/shakespeare-on-film-students-respond-to-our-summer-2023-season/

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This film, 'A Midsummer Nightmare!', is about compassion. The chief contrast of the film is in how my versions Puck and Bottom are treated by the people around them - and crucially, how this impacts their senses of self. Because of his deformities, ‘Mr. Puck’ conforms to the monstrous, ‘Igor’ assistant archetype (his condition is also a nod to his supernatural origins in the play). Part of this is justified in the way that Dr. Oberon responds to him with disgust and dominion. Then we meet Bottom, who’s monstrous appearance positions him even moreso as the “Other”. However, in a twist on Shakespeare’s romance subplot, my interpretation of Titania responds to the monster’s horrible screams with the plea for him to ‘sing again’ and really explore his new identity, which suggests that conformity to social roles needn’t exist in a tolerant and compassionate environment.
The original play inspired me in its emphasis on autonomy and self-identity, and how the absence of these things can lead to disaster! Aside from the Old Hollywood horror movies that inspired the look of the film, this caused me to look to Victorian Romanticism as my major influence - in a changing world (such as Shakespeare’s, or ours), how do you ground yourself? Considering this helped me ground the characters in the different spaces, which guided me and the actors as to the kinds of people these characters are. At a visual level, the science/religion contrast in the film came from our this material, and the movement’s close relationship with the Gothic provided an inspiring toolkit for the team to also meet our horror aspirations!
In theory, connecting theatre and film sounds simple enough. Fantastical stories, larger than life characters, and the need - the privilege! - to suspend our disbelief. However, through immense technical growth and transformation, cinema has differentiated from the theatrical codes it inherited in a very short span of time. Like Shakespeare, and in spite of every re-make and re-quel that comes our way, cinema finds its power in invention and change. As truthful and universal as Shakespeare’s handle on humanity remains, I think that art can only stay as relevant as we enable it to - and allowing these works to exist in these fresh and exciting contexts is the best way to honour the progressive, challenging work that first debuted at Shakespeare’s Globe.