Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

Russell T Davies Shares His Thoughts About Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Lesbian Kiss

Russell T Davies said he wanted to bring Midsummer Night’s Dream up to date with a same sex kiss.

Davies’ adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream was certainly memorable, and widely praised by BBC viewers.

From its diverse cast to the shock death of the tyrannical King Theseus, the re-telling originally sparked headlines with the inclusion of kiss between two women.

But this appears to be the moment people enjoyed the most viewers.

The kiss happens between fairy queen Titania (Maxine Peake) and Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta (Eleanor Matsuura) after she grows butterfly wings – a moment not in the original text.

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Russell described the last ten minutes of the programme as ‘the favourite thing I have ever done’ and went on to discuss the kiss from any Shakespeare purists who might take issue with it.

Davies told Digital Spy:

Really, if you’re a Shakespeare idiot, you might have a problem with it. It’s what his plays do, they reinvent themselves constantly, with every generation.

I don’t like the end of the play, where frankly Titania is submissive to Oberon and he gets away with his tricks. So it’s very deliberate.

That’s why Flute dances with a handsome man – because it’s such a happy ending, but it’s very male-female, male-female, male-female. I wanted to have a man with a man, a woman with a woman…because it’s 2016 now. That’s the world now and you want children to watch this and see the real world, in the middle of this fantasy.”

UK fans can watch Midsummer Night’s Dream on BBC iPlayer.

A Lesbian Version of Romeo & Juliet Worth Watching

West Philadelphia’s Curio Theater began its 2013-14 season with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Since the season was oriented on issues of gender, many of the roles in the play were switched from men to women. Juliet’s only parent was her mother, Lady Montague. Tybalt was a very different kind of character and the play was re-written to be about a lesbian romance between Juliet and a woman named Romeo.

When the play opened it caused controversy.  Many people objected to the production’s gay content. They objected to the play being staged in a Methodist church. Some of them objected to doing Shakespeare in modern dress. And there were threats of violence made against Curio Theatre.

A lot of people did not want you to see this play, but a lot more people supported the production. They felt the play was very important, and that the approach spoke to them. People who couldn’t come to Philadelphia to see the play wrote to Philadelphia’s Curio Theater about tours, so video director Brian Siano decided that the play needed to be preserved and shared with a wider audience.

There us now a Kickstarter page in place to fund a DVD version of Curio Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet. Their first goal is to pay for the post-production work, like editing, sound mixing, and manufacturing the DVDs. They then want to get the DVDs out to supporters by mid-May of 2014.

Support creating a DVD of Curio Theatre’s controversial lesbian-themed production of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet.