Gregory Doran Production 2005

Other videos in this series

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005) - Act 4 Scene 1 - Extract 1 (The Resolution)

  Watch this extract from the production, filmed on stage in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2005. Below you'll find links to more video clips where the director and actors discuss issues raised by the extract.

  Act 4 Scene 1

  In the forest outside Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta wake the lovers. When Theseus pronounces that all the couples will marry, Egeus leaves in silence. When everyone has departed, Bottom wakes up.

  Lysander - Trystan Gravelle
  Egeus - Tom Hodgkins
  Hermia - Sinead Keenan
  Helena - Caitlin Mottram
  Demetrius - Oscar Pearce
  Theseus - Miles Richardson
  Hippolyta - Bridgitta Roy
  Bottom - Malcolm Storry

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005) - Act 4 Scene 1 - Extract 2 (Bottom's dream)

  Watch this extract from Act 4 Scene 1 filmed on stage in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2005.

  Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers have left the forest to return to the city to be married. Bottom, who has been sleeping nearby, wakes up and can't believe the strange dream he's had.

  Bottom - Malcolm Storry

• Gregory Doran - How are they changed by the forest?

  Are the characters changed by their experience in the forest? Director Gregory Doran discusses how their use of language gives us information.

• Oscar Pearce - Was it all a dream?

  Was it all a dream? Are the fairies real? Actor Oscar Pearce explains how his character Demetrius is confused when he wakes up about what's real and what has been a dream.

• Oscar Pearce - Is it a happy ending?

  Actor Oscar Pearce explains how, in director Gregory Doran's interpretation, the play has a happy ending.

• Miles Richardson - About Theseus

  Miles Richardson, who plays Theseus, explains why he's happy at the end of the play and why he overturns his decision, allowing Hermia to marry Lysander.