30 Days of Shakespeare, Day 21

[lareinenoire]

Day #21: An overrated play

I'm probably going to end up burning in Shakespeare Hell for this, but The Tempest really doesn't do anything for me. I can, to an extent, appreciate it -- the language and the imagery are positively gorgeous -- but I don't love it, and I doubt I ever will.

Comments

[deliasherman]

I'm so with you. The structure is dull, dull, dull, Miranda is a cipher, the comedy is crude. The poetry is gorgeous, but it feels like he phoned the play in. The only production I've seen that didn't have me nodding in my seat was in Boston, by the Actor's Shakespeare Project, a shoestring operation run entirely by actors, which sounds like a recipe for disaster, but somehow isn't.

They did it in the round, as a Victorian circus, with Ariel as a woman in a corset and a top-hat and Prospero as the rather seedy Ringmaster. It was very funny and poignant and absolutely devoid of colonialist subtext. Of course, they cut the living daylights out of it. But do you really think Burbidge performed every play exactly as written? I don't.

But that's another conversation.

[gileonnen]

I'm a little more generous toward Miranda, I think--I find her delightfully alien and inquisitive on the page, and I've heard splendid things about her in productions. I've never actually seen a production, though, so at this stage that's a purely theoretical position for me.

[tempestsarekind]

Jumping in randomly--

I find her delightfully alien and inquisitive on the page

Heh, I love how I try really hard to describe things and fail, and then you do it perfectly. That's *just* what I love about Miranda, and why I've yet to see a Miranda who works for me.

Anyway--the things I love about The Tempest (like Miranda, and Ariel), I really love, but much of it kind of slides off my brain, a little.

[lareinenoire]

Miranda is a character who I think can work if you get the right actor -- the guy we had in our production was quite good, I found, but the gender-bending may have had something to do with that.

[gileonnen]

I respect your position, and mostly I agree with it. But since my next project after I've finished my Histories Ficathon fic(s) is that Ariel/Prospero thing ... well. I'm finding some narrative interest there. Maybe it's not textually supported, and maybe it's all white-guy-with-too-much-power angst, and maybe it only works if I add shiny chains--but I'm less cool to the play than I was before jehane18 made the request.

[jehane_writes]

(...Just driving by to say OMG YAY. Nothing to see here, business as usual, lalalalalalala...)

[gileonnen]

(This fic has been demanding to be written for the past month, and once I've cleared the space to work on it--well. I'm really excited at the prospect.)

[jehane_writes]

Believe you me, my dear, I am even more excited! *tries to contain her squee*

[halflingmerry]

::laughs:: My two most recent projects are your least favorite! But I agree!

(I actually got great satisfaction from and affection for "Shrew" while playing Katherina, and figured out an acceptable way to do so for my own politics/morality without changing anything in the show itself, including my sketchy estimation of WS's intentions. But can go into that later-maybe even on the appropriate post.)

I'm playing Ariel in "Tempest" right now. And while I'm absolutely loving the experience because we have a great cast and great director, writing-wise, I absolutely agree with you. The structure of the show is seriously defective. How is anyone supposed to pay attention to 13-pages of exposition all front-loaded?! Then the ending just falls in drive and energy like whoa and the audience falls asleep again. I think we've found ways to be entertaining, but most of the text is seriously (and unusually for WS) performance-dependent rather than inherently dynamic

[lareinenoire]

Oh, I know. Double-entendres all over the place! It was a play that was quite fun to perform, but every time I've tried to read it, it just sort of lies flat.

And I'd have loved to see your take on Katherine!

[jehane_writes]

Okay, see, I adore this play. Possibly because it is my most recent play (the Sam Mendez Bridge Project version with Stephen Dillane as Prospero). Gorgeously staged, and I found Dillane a most subtle and urbane Prospero. Of course the colonial stuff is always gonna be problematic, but Caliban is fearsomely energetic and was extremely well played, and, well, Mendez kind of sold me on Prospero/Ariel

[fuunsaiki]

I find it very interesting that you loved the Bridge Project production, 'cos while I have enjoyed a production of The Tempest a great deal in the past (see userpic; <3 Rupert Goold and Julian Bleach!), I just couldn't get involved at all with that one. Although I could at least hear Dillane, which apparently puts me streets ahead of audience memebrs earlier in the run. XD

[jehane_writes]

I did read several reviews and hear reports about the Dillane mumbling (and his kind of disengaged performance). It may have made a difference that I was in the first row - close enough to see the sprinkling of the sand, to hear the actors breathe. I was totally sucked in. (My co-workers in the row behind me, though, couldn't hear - I initially put it down to lousy acoustics. But then, we're not a particularly sophisticated jurisdiction :) )

(Also: awesome userpic!)

[fuunsaiki]

Haha, thanks. I have another one you might like too... ;D

[spectralbovine]

I am so with you on The Tempest. I've read it once or twice, and I just don't get what the big deal is. NOTHING HAPPENS.