I recently watched “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Michael Hoffman. This play is all about love and fate. In it there are four main couples. The play starts with a love triangle of two young men in love with one young woman, and another young woman ignored by both men. The third couple, the king and queen of the fairies, who have issues of their own, begin a series of events that change the object of affection of these four love birds and causes chaos in the relationships of each person. The fourth couple, the duke and his bride, play an important role in the fate of the young lovers. Since this is a romantic comedy, there is, of course, a happy ending for all involved.
This movie stayed very close to Shakespeare’s play with the language it used. All of the actors and actresses in the movie were phenomenal, in that they made the emotions and humor very obvious, even through the unfamiliar language.
This movie brought in a lot of new action that I had not pictured while reading the play. This action includes bicycles, wild storms and mud wrestling. The use of this action made the play more understandable and more interesting for a viewer who is not accustomed to reading or hearing Shakespearian language. Hoffman did take some liberties with the play such as the use of bicycles and adding a silent scene at the end that resolves the play a little bit more for Bottom.

The fairies and the magic aspects of the play allow the director some artistic freedom in how they are portrayed. This movie did a very good job of portraying the fairies with the effects and costuming they used.

Overall this movie was very well produced, directed and acted, and I would recommend it to anyone in the mood for a romantic comedy.