Tempest, The

Synopsis: A video recording, using a single, fixed camera, of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2002 production of The Tempest. Directed by Michael Boyd with Malcolm Storry as Prospero. Aerial choreography by Gavin Marshall.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 2002

Director

Michael Boyd

Writer

William Shakespeare

Music

John Woolf

Production Design

Tom Piper

Choreographer

Gavin Marshall

Cast

Notes: The RSC made video recordings of a performance at the Roundhouse and at the RST.
General: Boyd used the massive arena-like space at the Roundhouse by having much of the action taking place at a mezzanine level on a raised platform in the centre and a narrow walkway between the pit and the audience. He also made much of the circus skills of his actors many of whom ascended and descend ladders and ropes 50 ft or more above the ground.

Boyd’s casting of a black actor as Caliban led to critics writing about the play as a post-colonial statement.
History: Press night 7 May 2002. The production later transferred to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Reviews: Lindley, David. The Tempest. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2003.
[Studies post World War II Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Tempest by focusing on Prospero and the other main characters in relation to him, the staging of the spectacular, and the music. Discusses productions by Eric Crozier (1946), Norman Wright (1947), Michael Benthall (1951 and 1952), Peter Brook (1957), Clifford Williams and Peter Brook, John Barton, Keith Hack, Clifford Williams, Ron Daniels, Nicholas Hytner, Sam Mendes, David Thacker, Adrian Noble, James MacDonald, and Michael Boyd ].

Name: Royal Shakespeare Company
Web: https://www.rsc.org.uk External site opens in new window
Address: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
CV37 6BB

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