Levi Morger, Jen Greenwald, Ellyn Heald, Patrick Harvey, Vanessa Vaché, Will McKay & Ariana Karp discuss our initial thoughts on William Shakespeare’s late and beautiful The Tempest.
- Shakespeare’s first play to follow the unities (of time, place and action) since The Comedy of Errors.
- One of Shakespeare’s only original story lines
- Political implications of the play-mastery and rule and power structures and dynamics
- Metaphysical, spiritual and existential implications of the play
- Revenge plot structure
- Play imbued with humanism and humanist education
- Connections to Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus: “I’ll burn my books” vs. Shakespeare’s “I’ll drown my books”
- Montaigne’s Of the Cannibals and Gonzalo’s utopia speech
- Accessing the idea of Shakespeare’s magic in our day and age
- The power of language as a colonial device
- Shakespeare’s prophecy of the impact of alcohol on the indigineous population
- Many colonial themes before colonialism was a widespread phenomenon
- About escape (both physical and spiritual) and redemption
- Does the project succeed?
- The influence of Ben Jonson’s Masque and the anti-Masque
- Magic - Natural versus Demonic branches
- Human-ness of the non-humans
Correction: Tony Sher just finished a run of King Lear not The Tempest - our friend Natalie was his Cordelia, not Miranda. Apologies!
Helen Mirren as Prospera in Julie Taymor's movie The Tempest.