Halio, Jay L., A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare in Performance (1994). Good survey.
Jacobs, Sally, "Designing the Dream," in Peter Brook's Production of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Royal Shakespeare Company: The Complete and Authorised Acting Edition, ed. Glen Loney (1974). Insider's voice.
McArdle, Aidan, "Puck (and Philostrate)," in Players of Shakespeare 5, ed. Robert Smallwood (2003). Perceptive actor's view.
RSC "Exploring Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream," www.rsc.org.uk/explore/plays/dream.htm. Particular focus on the multilingual Dash Arts production directed by Tim Supple.
Selbourne, David, The Making of A Midsummer Night's Dream: An Eye-Witness Account of Peter Brook's Production from First Rehearsal to First Night (1982). Invaluable record of the seminal production.
Styan, J. L., The Shakespeare Revolution: Criticism and Performance in the Twentieth Century (1977). Good on changing production styles and relationship between criticism and theater.
Warren, Roger, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Text and Performance (1983). Useful.
Williams, Gary Jay, Our Moonlight Revels: A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Theatre (1997). Overview of stage history.
For a more detailed Shakespeare bibliography and selections from a wide range of critical accounts of the play, with linking commentary, visit the edition website, www.therscshakespeare.com.
AVAILABLE ON DVD
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton (1909, on DVD Silent Shakespeare, 2004). Short silent version, nicely exploiting the technological "magic" of the new medium of film.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt (1935, DVD 2007). One of the all-time classic Shakespeare films, with James Cagney as Bottom and Mickey Rooney as Puck.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Hall (1968, DVD 2005). Television broadcast of an exemplary RSC production, with Ian Richardson (Oberon), Judi Dench (Titania), David Warner (Lysander), Diana Rigg (Helena), Helen Mirren (Hermia), and Ian Holm (Puck).
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Elijah Moshinsky (1981, DVD 2004). Despite Helen Mirren's presence as Titania, a weak made-for-television production in the BBC complete Shakespeare series.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Adrian Noble (1996, DVD 2001). Film adaptation of RSC stage production.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Michael Hoffman (1999, DVD 2002). Patchy, despite (or because of) strong Hollywood cast, including Kevin Kline as Bottom and Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania.
The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Christine Edzard (2001, DVD 2006). Is what it says it is: acted (with varying degrees of success) by children.
REFERENCES
1. E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (4 vols., 1924), vol. 3, p. 279.
2. William A. Ringler, Jr., "The Number of Actors in Shakespeare's Early Plays," in The Seventeenth-Century Stage, ed. G. E. Bentley (1968), p. 134.
3. Bottom the Weaver (1661, facsimile repr. 1970), sig. a2v.
4. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (11 vols., 1970-82), vol. 3, p. 208 (29 September 1662).
5. William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817), pp. 126-34.
6. Playbills, Theatre Museum, London.
7. Jay Halio, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare in Performance (1994), pp. 30-1.
8. Ellen Terry, Memoirs (1933), p. 149.
9. The Times, review of A Midsummer Night's Dream, 11 January 1900.
10. Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare (2 vols., 1946-47), vol. 2, p. 346.
11. Francois Laroque, Shakespeare's Festive World (1991), p. 122.