A to Z Challenge 2022: Shakespeare - T Is For The Tempest

Prospero and Miranda. Public Domain

 The Tempest is probably Shakespeare’s last play. At the very end, the magician Prospero speaks of retirement, throwing his book into the deep and getting rid of his staff, suggesting Shakespeare’s own retirement. 

Anyway, it’s a nice one to end on, if so. And as you’ll know, it has been used for other shows, from Forbidden Planet to a musical called Return To The Forbidden Planet which uses 1950s songs.

It begins with a storm(the tempest of the title). The ship has a number of people important to the protagonist, Prospero. It’s a magical storm which he caused, so everyone thinks they are shipwrecked but in fact, the ship is fine. Nobody has drowned.

Prospero lives on an island with his young daughter Miranda, and a couple of magical servants, Ariel an “airy spirit” and a rather less airy creature called Caliban, whose mother was a witch, Sycorax, who had died. Prospero brought Caliban up and was okay to him till he tried to rape Miranda. 

Father and daughter are there because while he was Duke of Milan  he spent so much time with his books that it was easy for his brother, Antonio, to send him off to sea in a rotten boat with his toddler daughter, Miranda, and usurp the Dukedom. A kindly, loyal courtier sneaked them enough supplies to get to an island and be able to set up there. 

Now Antonio has come to the island with a bunch of others, including another Duke, whose son Ferdinand is about to fall in love with Miranda, of course. 

Prospero has become a very powerful magician during his years on the island, so he is able to confuse everyone, with the help of Ariel, and make their lives miserable for a while. Caliban is hanging out with a couple of coarse crewmen, Stephano and Trinculo, who introduce him to alcohol, which he enjoys for a while, till he realises that they are not good for him.

Prospero makes Ferdinand work, pretending to disapprove of his relationship with Miranda, who has, after all, never seen a man before except her father, unless you count Caliban, who is not really human. Of course she is going to be attracted to the first pretty young man she meets. 

Anyway, all eventually turns out well. There is a wedding with a masque played by spirits of the island. Prospero frees Ariel and embraces Caliban as his other half, a bit like Captain Kirk in “The Enemy Within” embracing his “evil” half, without whom he really can’t function. He undoes all the nasty stuff he has done during the play and forgives, after Ariel says he/she feels sorry for them, and makes his speech about retiring from magic. 

I’ve seen many productions of it on stage, including one where the island is Australia and Ariel and Caliban are both Indigenous Australians; when Ariel is freed, she throws off her western clothing and joins a group of other indigenous women. Caliban was presented as an Indigenous man in chains, inspired by a historical photo of a group of chained men. He is not interested in hugging Prospero and regards him with contempt as he throws off his chains.

To be honest, I’m not fond of Prospero, who neglected his job as Duke for his studies and had his throne stolen as a result. But it’s interesting to see the character develop, to the point where he accepts his dark side and overcomes his resentment to show mercy. 

There have been quite a few impressive actors doing The Tempest over the years - so many that I’ll give you a Wikipedia link. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProsperoA

There was a film in 2010, which cast Helen Mirren in the lead as Prospera. I see that one of the smaller roles was played by Alfred Molina, whom you may have seen at the beginning of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, as Indiana Jones’ assistant, who got killed by one of the many traps in the cave, and has since played a Spiderman villain.

The BBC version I saw many years ago had a terrific cast - comedian Michael Hordern as Prospero, David Dixon as Ariel(you may have seen him in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy as Ford Prefect), Nigel Hawthorne(Yes, Minister) as Stephano, Andrew Sachs as Trinculo(the waiter from Barcelona, Manuel, in Fawlty Towers). 

 

I played Ariel the airy spirit once, at university. It was great fun to do. 

Have you seen a performance of this? If you are in the mood, there are a number of productions on YouTube. 

See you on Monday for U!