A Midsummer Night's Dream is an underrated play with very unsuccessful adaptations. Most seem to not resonate with modern audiences because they either do not understand the text or the film does not do a great job making the story accessible to them. This is why I came up with an adaptation that is not only easily understandable to today’s audiences, but also improves the overall story.
This adaptation will keep almost the same exact storyline as the original play, except that the comedy is enhanced to make it more humorous to modern audiences. Some of the long monologues will be turned into songs. Thankfully, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Donald Glover are not only starring in this movie, but will also help write the soundtrack as well. This will make those scenes feel more engaging than if a character was just talking to him/herself.
This adaptation will focus more on the theme of love related mistakes. For example, the original text does not go into detail about why the situation between the four lovers is so complicated. In this adaptation, Lysander tries to impress Egeus with his charm and charisma, because he needs his approval to marry Hermia. The problem is, Egeus does not want Hermia to marry Lysander solely because he is not Greek. Egeus’s preference for a suitor is Demetrius, an egotistical rich Greek man who goes out of his way to impress Hermia in similar ways that Lysander does. The main difference between Lysander and Demetrius’s characters are that Lysander has more charm and Demetrius has more ego. Helena goes out of her way to get Demetrius’s attention and love. This theme is also helpful for enhancing the plot with Oberon and Titania. In this adaptation, the Fairy King and Queen are in the middle of a divorce, which is why they argue about who gets possession of the Changeling Boy. It would be funny to have Oberon and Titania prank each other to try and get the boy. Oberon’s plan is exactly like the original text: have Titania fall in love with a beast to make her distracted enough to give her the boy. Titania, on the other hand, plans on flirting with a beast to make Oberon jealous enough to give her the boy. This not only makes this plotline less rapey, but also way funnier.
The dream elements of this show will also be highlighted more throughout the film, by having the forest scenes with the fairies be animated to highlight the enchanted element of the location. The prominent characters that spend time there (Oberon, Titania, Puck, and Bottom) will either be acting in front of a green screen or CGI will be added later on. The fairy servants will also be animated and be voiced by various voice actors. Having professional voice actors playing the fairies will make the character portrayals more comical and genuine than hiring A-List actors. In this film, the fairies will be voiced by H. Jon Benjamin (Bob's Burgers and Archer), Kristen Schaal (Bob's Burgers), and Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty).
This movie will hopefully release in theaters, so the general audience can enjoy an updated version of this Shakespearian play.