ABSTRACT
One would like to think that the reason for all the Shakespeare films in the 1990s is that at last stage and film are communicating with each other, and there is some truth in that. Branagh did a Henry Von stage in 1984 before he made his film and a 'complete' Hamlet for Adrian Noble before that film. Branagh's A Midwinter's Tale is about a production of Hamlet in a provincial English town full of empty churches, empty pockets, and full pubs. Stoppard's brilliant film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is, of course, based on his play, but very different, not just as film is different from stage, but as script. Loncraine's Richard III is a very specific, 'historicized' version of the Richard Eyre production at the National in 1990, which sketched in its fascist background against our suspension of disbelief. Noble's Midsummer Night's Dream is based on his stage version.
