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.