This has a real free-wheeling feeling to the camera, and to the actors. Anything on a proscenium is going to be artificial. When you see opera live, it’s artificial. They’re able to face upstage, downstage, sidestage, so when you have these fights going on, it’s really kinetic, and that allows the camera to be everywhere. Because audiences are on all sides, the movement of the actors is much more naturalistic. There’s also something very important about the way this is staged in theater. Your acting can be brought down to an inner monologue, and you can get this multi-layering of styles.” I could say to David Harewood, “You don’t have to project for the last row in the house. Because I could do these daytime pickups, I could be more intimate. You know they’re there, but because we’re onstage and in their faces, it’s much more immersive. What you get in this film is you’re aware it’s being performed live, but after a while, you forget the live audience. So many of our leads have acting experience in television or film as well as theater. So I use the locations in cinema to be extensions of what Shakespeare’s ideas are about. In “The Tempest,” when we were in a forest where all the machinations of the court were, it was like a labyrinth of trees - whereas for the two young lovers, Miranda and Ferdinand, they were in this gorgeous sand pit, where their love could flower with this gorgeous color. You are supporting the language and the ideas that are in the play with your choice of landscape.

That’s a metaphor for the rape of this woman. For the rape of Lavinia - with the help of Dante Ferretti, of course, the great production designer - I chose a swamp with burned-out stumps from a forest fire, because it was inspired by the language of Shakespeare. Because the environments are literal - in “Titus,” we were in Rome, we had colosseums, we were in forests and swamps - you find the metaphorical landscapes for what in the theater would have been stylized. When I do that, I’m doing an adaptation of an actual play to these environments. Visit for more information.I’ve had the benefit of shooting two Shakespeare movie-movies, “Titus” and “The Tempest,” both of them on location. Here's how the production is described: 'Hermia loves Lysander and Helena loves Demetrius – but Demetrius is supposed to be marrying Hermia… When the Duke of Athens tries to enforce the marriage, the lovers take refuge in the woods and wander into the midst of a dispute between the king and queen of the fairies.' Directed by Dominic Dromgoole, the production features Huss Garbiya, Tala Gouveia, Tom Lawrence, John Light, Christopher Logan, Molly Logan, Sarah MacRae, Fergal McElherron, Edward Peel, Pearce Quigley, Stephanie Racine, Olivia Ross, Joshua Silver, Matthew Tennyson, Michelle Terry and Luke Thompson. 'But to maintain his position, Macbeth must keep on killing – first Banquo, his old comrade-in-arms then, as the atmosphere of guilt and paranoia thickens, anyone who seems to threaten his tyrant’s crown.' Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream will be in U.K. 'When three witches tell Macbeth that he is destined to occupy the throne of Scotland, he and his wife choose to become the instruments of their fate and to kill the first man standing in their path, the virtuous King Duncan,' press notes state. Helmed by Eve Best, the cast includes Moyo Akandé, Geoff Aymer, Bette Bourne, Stuart Bowman, Billy Boyd, Jonathan Chambers, Philip Cumbus, Gawn Grainger, Harry Hepple, Joseph Millson, Jess Murphy, Colin Ryan, Cat Simmons, Samantha Spiro and Finty Williams. The tragedy Macbeth will be presented in U.K. When Prospero raises a storm to wreck this perfidious brother and his confederates on the island, his long contemplated revenge at last seems within reach.' He is comforted by his daughter Miranda and served by his spirit Ariel and the deformed slave Caliban.

Here's how the production is billed: 'Prospero, Duke of Milan, usurped and exiled by his own brother, holds sway over an enchanted island.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the cast includes Roger Allam, Jason Baughan, Jessie Buckley, Sam Cox, Pip Donaghy, Trevor Fox, Peter Hamilton Dyer, James Garnon, Joshua James, William Mannering, Colin Morgan, Matthew Raymond, Sarah Sweeney and Amanda Wilkin. The screenings are presented by Shakespeare's Globe, in partnership with Arts Alliance Media.

Midsummer night screen