"Caliban's Dream" was performed for the first time on 27 July 2012 at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London, as the Olympic cauldron was lit by the seven young athletes. The title refers to Caliban in "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, whose 'Be not afeard' speech Sir Kenneth Branagh, as 19th Century engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had recited earlier in the ceremony - a speech from the play's Act 3, Scene 2, in which Caliban refers to his dreams: