Russell T Davies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream changed my life
The screenwriter reinvented Doctor Who - and now he's achieved his 42-year dream of remaking Shakespeare's comedy
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This play can be sweet and funny and light, but CBeebies has already made a wonderful version of that for this year’s Shakespeare season – find it on the iPlayer, it’s gorgeous. But that left me free to get a little darker. Darkness already exists within the text; this is the story of the King and Queen of Fairyland at war, a battle so profound that it has turned the seasons inside out. This is, in fact, midwinter.
And Oberon, lord of the supernatural, is so determined to get his revenge that he makes his Queen fall in love with a monster, a creature who’s half-man and half-donkey. And then four lovers, ordinary mortals – one of whom has already been sentenced to death by her own father – come blundering along, bringing all their passion, anger and jealousy into this secret world of tricks and traps. It’s a long, dark night in the forest of Athens, and the trouble is only just beginning….
Of course, it’s boring when a TV drama says ‘We’ve gone dark this year,’ so let me reassure you. The hoots are intact! A play can be many things, and this is also a whacking great comedy. I like to imagine that William Shakespeare sat there one day, considering his epic tale of Gods and heroes and unrequited love, and thought to himself, “What’s missing here? I know. An amateur dramatics company!” So he dropped the Mechanicals into the forest, and they’ve been making people laugh for 400 years. Our Mechanicals are a roster of Britain’s comedy finest, from Matt Lucas to Javone Prince, with Elaine Paige as Mistress Quince, trying to keep the peace. I swear, by the end of it, you’ll want a spin-off called Quince!
And to give credit where credit’s due, I stole from the best. When I embarked on this production, I scrolled down my phone to seek the advice of the greatest expert in Shakespeare I know, David Tennant. Sadly, he wasn’t free to appear in this production – he would have made a great Moth – but he suggested some brilliant jokes. When you see the gag with Bernard Cribbins and a hand-pump, that’s copyright DT.
The ghost of Doctor Who was invoked deliberately. When I brought that show back in 2005, I wanted to make it feel brand new, but I also wanted to awaken the old, to stir that ancestral memory of something that was once loved. And I think A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the same. It wasn’t just my school putting on a production, it was a hundred thousand schools. This is the kids’ play! During filming, every member of the crew piped up with a memory from their childhood. I was Demetrius. I was a fairy. I provided Starveling’s dog.
I gave out orange squash in the interval. And undoubtedly, all of us were united by one, central joke, that this play has a character called Bottom – generations of children have been laughing at that for centuries! There’s a shared memory in that laughter, a shared love, which I hope everyone can remember and enjoy again when we broadcast this on BBC1.
A few weeks ago, we had a screening of the finished show in Cardiff, for cast and crew. And it was a very special night for me, because sitting there, in the middle of the audience, as guest of honour, was Cecily Hughes. Still as wonderful as ever! Clapping and cheering and beaming away, as well she should. Because this is all thanks to her. It took me 42 years to get it on screen, but this, at last, is her Dream.
