Russell T Davies set the bar very high for the edge and energy required for an accessible modern screen adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on the BBC last year, with Stormtrooper-like soldiers, a shock death at the end and Maxine Peake playing a fairy. It’s perhaps unfair to compare Davies’ effort with this well-intentioned adaptation from Barbados, which doesn’t have the all-star cast and feels a little scrimped in the effects department.
Sticking mostly to the Shakespeare with a little slang mashed in, it plays out in a carnival atmosphere, performed by a mix of British and Barbadian actors. Aden Gillett is a genial, avuncular Theseus, commanding Hermia (Marina Bye) to marry Demetrius (Sam Gillett), while his own bride-to-be Hippolyta looks on frowning with concern. Actually, rather than the fresh-faced young lovers, it’s middle-aged Hippolyta and Theseus having another throw of the dice who add the romantic sweetness here – comfortable in their own skins and tender with each other, a little amused at the foolishness of their hearts. As adaptations go, A Caribbean Dream perhaps fails to find a fresh angle on the text. But, if you’ve had your fill of flitty-fluttery fairies, its forest sprites are a palate cleanser – constantly sloping off to carnival, which makes for more twerking than your average Shakespeare.
