William Shakespeare's The Tempest

In 1741 a statue in memory of William Shakespeare was erected in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner. The poet leans on a pile of books and points to a scroll on which are quoted lines from Prospero in The Tempest. By 2012, when the actor Kenneth Branagh – dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel – recited a speech of Caliban’s as part of the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, Shakespeare’s reputation as England’s greatest poet and playwright had long been written in stone.

Even so, until the mid 19^th century, adaptations of the play dominated. Foremost was John Dryden’s The Enchanted Island which added several characters – Dorinda, a sister to Miranda, Sycorax became Caliban’s sister, and Prospero was given a foster son Hippolito (a popular ‘breeches’ role for an actress) – and heavily emphasised monarchy as the natural form of government. The actor-manager Charles Macready reinstated Shakespeare’s original text in 1838, but in Charles Kean’s 1857 production the play had to again be heavily cut to allow for many lavish set changes and stage effects.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries Caliban became regarded as the star role, with the actor Frank Benson much admired for hanging upside down in a tree. It was not until the 1970s that a colonial reading of the play emerged, with Jonathan Miller’s production described as ‘the tragic and inevitable disintegration of a more primitive culture as the result of European invasion and colonisation’.

Over the years the play has been adapted as an opera, a ballet, a film and a Bunraku puppet show. In the RSC’s 2016 production, cinematic performance capture projected Ariel onto the stage in real time.

Although it appears as the opening play in the First Folio, in the canon The Tempest is always listed as the last play that Shakespeare wrote entirely alone. It is a fascinating text that we will read and discuss over eight sessions, beginning on Monday 16 September.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Eight meeting study on Zoom led by Jane Wymark
• Mondays, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK), 16 September to 4 November 2024
• Recommended edition: The Tempest, The Arden Shakespeare, edited by Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden T. Vaughan, ISBN: 978-1408133477
• £240 for eight meetings, to include opening notes and background resources.