Our 2013 Tour took us to another magical world, an island, where man rules over sprites and sprites meddle with man. Director Alasdair Hunter had long wanted to take on The Tempest and he did so by bringing his delightful re-imagining to you with a few twists.
On his island time has stopped, Prospero is frozen in age from the moment she arrives as she waits to resolve her life in Milan. Prospero is also female, played by Artistic Director Julia Stemper. This allows for a slightly different dichotomy between Miranda (her daughter, played by Krista Taylor) as the role of mother is so often different from that of father. Keeping in tune with our small ensemble productions there is much doubling throughout the production. Miranda's love interest Ferdinand is played by Chicago actor Jake Jones who flows swiftly from the lost Prince to Caliban, a doubling that pits good vs evil vs good many times over. Hunter, a Scotsman, was keen to work with the company to tell the story as simply and as imaginatively as Shakespeare set forth to do. He wove together a Byzantine World of finery that the shipwrecked passengers have sailed from with a picked over world of scraps left from Prospero's shipwreck of 12 years ago.
The Tempest is considered the most original of Shakespeare's plays and is also a bit of a love poem from Shakespeare to both audience and actors. It is considered to be the last play of his that was written solely by Shakespeare and in it Shakespeare - through the voice of Prospero - promises to put down his "staff" and cease all spells as soon as this last one is complete. The play is also one of the most musical of Shakespeare's. Hunter has chosen sea chanteys as the main influence in the music that drifts in and out of the island, reminding us all that the story is inherently nautical and that the troubles are never quite over. Both happy and sad passengers are still far from Naples and must put faith in nature to guide them home, with hope that no new mischief will befall them to stall them further, but rather "calm seas, auspicious gales/and sails so expeditious that [they] will catch/[their] royal fleet far off."
On his island time has stopped, Prospero is frozen in age from the moment she arrives as she waits to resolve her life in Milan. Prospero is also female, played by Artistic Director Julia Stemper. This allows for a slightly different dichotomy between Miranda (her daughter, played by Krista Taylor) as the role of mother is so often different from that of father. Keeping in tune with our small ensemble productions there is much doubling throughout the production. Miranda's love interest Ferdinand is played by Chicago actor Jake Jones who flows swiftly from the lost Prince to Caliban, a doubling that pits good vs evil vs good many times over. Hunter, a Scotsman, was keen to work with the company to tell the story as simply and as imaginatively as Shakespeare set forth to do. He wove together a Byzantine World of finery that the shipwrecked passengers have sailed from with a picked over world of scraps left from Prospero's shipwreck of 12 years ago.
The Tempest is considered the most original of Shakespeare's plays and is also a bit of a love poem from Shakespeare to both audience and actors. It is considered to be the last play of his that was written solely by Shakespeare and in it Shakespeare - through the voice of Prospero - promises to put down his "staff" and cease all spells as soon as this last one is complete. The play is also one of the most musical of Shakespeare's. Hunter has chosen sea chanteys as the main influence in the music that drifts in and out of the island, reminding us all that the story is inherently nautical and that the troubles are never quite over. Both happy and sad passengers are still far from Naples and must put faith in nature to guide them home, with hope that no new mischief will befall them to stall them further, but rather "calm seas, auspicious gales/and sails so expeditious that [they] will catch/[their] royal fleet far off."
The Tempest
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The Story
The Tempest opens with a shipwreck that strands various gentry on an island, including Alonso, King of Naples. As the storm clears we meet the current island inhabitants, Prospero (former Duke of Milan), Prospero's daughter Miranda, Caliban their Native slave and Ariel, a sprite that has been trapped on the island in myriad ways. Prospero uses magic to manipulate the gentry as well as a pair of the King's drunken servants that landed on yet another part of the island. Caliban and Ariel become spies and companions to the new arrivals, working simultaneously to both to aid and thwart Prospero’s plans. All the while the King’s son Ferdinand is courting the young Miranda who is both naive and enthusiastic as she realizes that there is more to life than the home she has known for so long.
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The Ensemble
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
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