Echoes from the Dream - Exploring A Midsummer Nights Dream in Theatre, Music and Opera

This master’s thesis examines intertextuality and modern adaptations of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream within contemporary popular culture. The focus of the paper is a modern dramaturgical adaptation from The National Theater (2019), Taylor Swift’s song ‘Wonderland’ (2023), and an opera directed by Jeremy Sams called The Enchanted Island (2011). While none of these art mediums, mentioned earlier replicate Shakespearean plots exactly, they all represent and reflect the same storyline and adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This research aims to investigate adaptation theory and how the above-mentioned adaptations reinterpret Shakespeare’s work. Using literary, comparative, and performance analyses, this study demonstrates that Shakespearean plots maintain their materiality and relevancy in modern times, serving as the inspiration for multidisciplinary artistic works. In the final part analysis, the findings suggest that these adaptations not only simply honor the original work, but recontextualize the narrative to resonate with the modern world, contributing to the ongoing discourse in adaptation studies. This research aims to answer how these adaptations reinterpret Shakespeare’s work and what this information reveals about contemporary cultural values. Using literary, comparative and performance analyses, this study demonstrates that Shakespearean plots maintain their materiality and relevancy in modern times, serving as the inspiration for multidisciplinary artistic works. In final part analysis, the findings suggest that these adaptations not only simply honor the original work, but recontextualize the narrative to resonate with the modern world, contributing to the ongoing discourse in adaptation studies.