Midsummer Nightmare

For Puck’s sake watch this. Shakespeare’s “shrewd and knavish sprite” emerges in the C20th and takes on the modern obsession of television

What would Puck, “that merry wanderer of the night”, make of the modern era? This animated short pitches Shakespeare’s “shrewd and knavish sprite” against a contemporary folly – the television. Halas & Batchelor had an ambition to make a feature length version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream after Animal Farm (1954) but they failed to find the backing. This little known playful short was produced in the mid-50s but seemingly was not released until 1964.

The film was also released in Germany as Ein Sommernachts alptraum with German dialogue and all the surviving picture elements, including the original negative, have the titles for this version.