Of all of the works of William Shakespeare, his play A Midsummer Night's Dream has, perhaps, been readapted on stage and on film in more ways than any other. These film adaptations extend from groups remaining absolutely true to the original text to those who alter a great deal to either modernize it or to cater to a different type of audience. A prime example of staying true to the text, almost word for word, is the 1981 film adaptation, directed by Elijah Mohinsky. On the other hand in April 28th 1964 episode of Around the Beatles showed a very different adaptation wherein the members of the classic rock troupe acted out the famous Act five Scene one in which the "play within a play," Pyramyus and Thisbe is presented by the Mechanicals. These two extremes of play adaptation show just how versatile the script for A Midsummer Night's Dream is in terms of audience, costume, and even setting.
             The most important variable in the film adaptations of this classic work is in the audience. The differences exhibited in who the work is being aimed towards effect all of the other difference in the adaptations. This was, perhaps, Shakespeare's goal in writing this play because of the limited amount of onstage directions that are found in the original text. It is an interesting idea to leave much of the direction up to the adaptors because, as can be seen in the chosen on screen versions, drastically different groups with vastly different motives can rework the primary idea of the play to suit an incredibly vast spectrum of audiences and leave them all whole heartily entertained at the end. To take the example of the 1981 Mohinsky edition this edition used stuck up actors who remained in traditional character types to entertain a group of English traditionalists who were seeking a real feel of the original 1590s era work. This is contrasted with the 1960s rock sensation that was the Beatles who also stuck to the original text used by...