Tabling: The Tempest Act IV

Will McKay, Chasen Schneider, Levi Morger, Mitchel Kawash & Ariana Karp puzzle through Act IV of The Tempest.

  • The Ben Jonson Masque put into the play - difficult to incorporate the Iris/Ceres/Juno part in a way that moves the plot forward
  • Iris/Ceres/Juno sequence as a marriage ceremony for Miranda and Ferdinand
  • Why is Prospero so upset about remembering Caliban’s treachery?
  • Difficulty of the specific stage directions in the act
  • What is Prospero’s confrontation with mortality caused by? Caliban’s plot? The appearance of the spirits? His daughter getting married?  
  • Achieving immortality through words
  • Is Prospero concerned with legacy?
  • Music as frightening and overwhelming as opposed to soothing and pleasant
  • Shakespeare’s use of mixed metaphors “smelt music,” "rainy marching in the painful field" & “I see a voice”
  • Is this Shakespeare’s only play that takes place entirely outside?
  • Shakespeare and the relationships between punctuation, breathing, rhythm and meaning
Colin Morgan as Ariel in the Globe's 2013 production.

Colin Morgan as Ariel in the Globe's 2013 production.