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Having started in October, with a brief hiatus, I finished my #Tempest #SlowShakespeare daily blog yesterday. Roughly 90K words (that includes the text of the play!) and 180 entries. Random observations about the play will follow... https://twitter.com/starcrossed2018/status/1265177923864100864">https://twitter.com/starcross...
I& #39;ve never really liked Prospero. I& #39;m not sure I like him now. But he& #39;s *fascinating* - so messed up, so vulnerable, conflicted. Desperate to love and be loved; enduringly wounded by his brother& #39;s betrayal. And all of that with almost no soliloquies...
It& #39;s tempting to lump Alonso in with Antonio, as having enabled Prospero& #39;s deposition and therefore Bad. But the King of Naples ends up being one of the play& #39;s most sympathetic characters, a moving study in grief, and paternal love, who swiftly repents of his past misdeeds.
And it quickly becomes apparent that Antonio, P& #39;s brother, is weak, selfish, & easily led, but not outright evil? Sebastian, Alonso& #39;s brother, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, however, slippery and sneering. The characters remain distinct, even if they& #39;re both & #39;the villains& #39;.
You& #39;d think that the goddesses in the masque would all sound the same, but no: Ceres doesn& #39;t sound like Iris doesn& #39;t sound like Juno. They describe landscape differently, swooping from above, or at ground level. (And *how* Miltonic is the masque, and Tempest generally?!)
Masques. Finding a contemporary idiom is hard; the #Tempest masque isn& #39;t the full court spectacular, but we have to imagine much music, much dancing, and much spangling & gauze... (Modern analogue for court masques, and only a little exaggerated: Olympics opening ceremony)
Also, just because: the amazing @JadeAnouka as Ariel, with attendant spirits, @DonmarWarehouse - adored the fishy masks here.
It seemed important, as well as really enriching, to write about Ariel as they/them. Initially I found it hard to remember but I got used to it, and & #39;he& #39; (or indeed & #39;she& #39;) jars a bit now. Collecting Ariel pictures has been extremely fun! Love Ariel, their strangeness, pathos, wit
Ferdinand& #39;s a *nice* boy, isn& #39;t he? he and Florizel in Winter& #39;s Tale (surely written for the same actor?) are the open-hearted opposites of Claudio, Bertram, & esp. Posthumus. Loves & is loved by his father, one reason why he and Miranda & #39;match& #39;... ( @TheRSC 2016; @JSTheatre 2020)
Pictorial tradition of Miranda is interesting (& others know much more than me, @sally_barnden) much C19 some-day-my-prince-will-come gazing out to sea. Now wilder, tougher, bright, curious, loving, wondering.
Julia Margaret Cameron (1865); Mariah Gale & @SirPatStew @RSC 2006
Julia Margaret Cameron (1865); Mariah Gale & @SirPatStew @RSC 2006
