The marketing team for A Midsummer Night’s Dream have been calling this show ‘Midsummer Island’ in conversation, and that would be a great name to have used in the listings.
As this is The Fringe, there’s at least one other version in the programme, but this one really does distinguish itself with the concept, which is strongly presented throughout.
In short, it’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream x Love Island’, and it works really, really well. The Love Island Villa is now ‘Athens’, which works to reflect Shakespeare’s original intent of using locations people would have an awareness of, but are unlikely to have actually been to themselves.
There are, broadly, three sets of characters in the original play. There’s the Lovers, the Rude Mechanicals, and the Fairies. Here, all of these are people within the Love Island Villa. The lovers and the mechanicals are all contestants on the TV show, and the Fairies are the presenters and the production crew.
The vibe is set from the beginning, with the cast walking onto the stage like it’s a runway, and posing for the audience. There’s strong, upbeat music that could have been snatched directly from the Love Island soundtrack.
As the show has had to be condensed into a 75 minute running time, a lot of edits have had to be made.
The most brutal is that Theseus and Hippolyta have been completely removed. In most productions, those roles double with Oberon and Titania. And here any of the lines usually spoken by Theseus or his reluctant bride have been given to the fairy King and Queen instead.
We still get a lot of the central four lovers. Here, it’s framed around dumping, and removal from the show.
The rude mechanicals are other contestants on the show: Bottom is a recruiter – and you just know he’s completely obnoxious about it! Others in the group include a fashion blogger, a PT, a scaffolder, model and air stewardess. As some amendments have already been made to the script to make it fit the concept, they could have just called ‘Peter Quince’ ‘Petra’, as the role is being played by a female-presenting person. As it is, it’s currently a bit awkward.
The fairies do what they do, enchanting flowers and throwing barbs at each other. As warring presenters, Titania and Oberon make sense – the paranoia is palpable. And you can believe that these are two people who battle against each other for the sake of their respective careers.
The other fairies are the production crew. Puck in particular is excellent, and the bulk of their lines have been retained.
The language is about 98% original Shakespeare, with a very few lines added, or words changed to fit with the concept. This is again, really well done, and makes sense as you’re watching the performance.
This is a great, fun, funny, adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that has thought deeply about the Love Island aspect. And embraced the eccentricities of both the play and the TV show to glorious effect.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream continues at The Space at Venue 45 at 22:20 daily, until August 16
