The Bermuda Festival production of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', which opened at City Hall on February 25 was a lavish, one might almost say extravagant, one. Cinematic in feel from the title projected on billowy gauze curtains at the beginning to the final "The End", the production included montages of projected images, songs, dance and special effects. The only thing missing was the MGM lion.

From the opening storm to Prospero's ambivalent farewell, no opportunity was lost to use every technical advantage of the theatre available, to the point where occasionally Shakespeare's words got lost in the technical marvels on display.

The play was set unequivocally in Bermuda, as Prospero conjuring the storm in his magical cape appeared Gombey-like, while the airy spirit Ariel appeared as a longtail, darting here and there in a very avian manner. Casting the monstrous Caliban as a hissing chameleon was inspired, and Carman Lacivita was suitably slithery.

The set design allowed the multi-tiered deck of a ship to turn into Bermuda's rocky shore when the shipwreck survivors, King Alsonso of Naples, his son Ferdinand and brother Sebastian, and the usurping Duke of Milan, Prospero's brother Antonio, struggled ashore. With the help of effective lighting design one could imagine just as easily the same space as Walsingham forest where the Duke's jester Trinculo and drunk butler Stephano stumble upon a mutinous Caliban to hilarious effect.

While these two parties are stumbling about the deserted island, each believing they are the sole survivors, Prospero, with the supernatural aid of Ariel, brings his daughter Miranda and Ferdinand together and monitors a seduction carried out at breakneck speed. Miranda, played by Kelly McCreary, is a convincing combination of naivety and quick wit, and totally endearing. One could imagine she would be more than a match for Ferdinand, despite her sheltered upbringing.

A musical interlude allows the benevolent spirits of the Island and their attendant sprites to bestow multiple blessings on the young couple in an intriguing and suitably haunting dance choreographed by Conchita Ming and Greg Zane.

The elaborate costumes of the three goddesses, Iris, Ceres and Juno represent various elements of the Island, the sandy shore, the floral bounty, and the treasures of the deep respectively. But they are abruptly dismissed by an agitated Prospero keen to bring his intricate plot to a conclusion.

The final confrontation between Prospero and his erstwhile enemies – his treacherous brother Antonio and fellow-conspirator King Alonso – is equally ambivalent. Alonso appears genuinely contrite while Antonio merely concedes defeat. This ambivalence is carried through to the final emancipations: Ariel from his promise, Caliban from his servitude and Prospero from his magical exile. One hopes that a chastened, wiser Propsero will dedicate more time and attention to his subjects, but one gets the impression that he is not entirely happy to abandon his occult knowledge and solitary exile for the responsibilities of leadership.

The production is infused with the sense of illusion, 'goodly creatures' hide treacherous hearts, feasts turn into mounds of skulls, gods are merely drunken sots, and the air is filled with strange noises and ethereal music composed by Steve Gallant.

What might have been a dark, supernatural tale is leavened throughout with touches of humour – an elusive feather, an animated sword and incompetent servants. Tom Beckett's Trinculo was particularly engaging, though I did wish he would leave his quacking codpiece alone. And I'm not sure whether the singing pig on a spit was meant to be funny – but I was surprised into laughter.

If I were to be hyper-critical, I would wish Anthony Stewart Head's Prospero to be more pre-occupied than dithery, especially in the opening scenes, and the concept of Ariel as a longtail, sensitively interpreted by Mark Whitten, rendered the 'dainty' Ariel more angular than I imagined him to be.

All in all, Joel Froomkin's interpretation of Shakepeare's "brave new world" is as "colourful, surprising …affectionate (and) magical" as he could have wished.