Rough magic

[crowleycrow]

Watched Julie Taymor's Tempest last night. It was wonderful throughout, though (as is common now) a bit darker-hued than you'd expect. I was reminded of Max Rheihardt's 1930s film of "Midsummer Night's Dream" in the casting, assembled as in a dream -- Alfred Molina, David Strathairn, Chis Cooper (!), Alan Cumming, Tom Conti -- all doing classic

Comments

[chelseagirl]

I quite like this version; it gets a lot of negative press, and there are certainly some flaws to it, but it's overall very good, I think. When I used to teach the play, I shifted between showing this version and the Derek Jarman. That is intriguing as a film, but the performances are far stronger in Taymor's. My students were thrown by seeing Russell Brand in Shakespeare, though.

[crowleycrow]

He was great, and paired with Alfred Molina and Dlimoun Hounsou made the comic scenes actually funny for the first time in any production I've ever seen.

[randy_byers]

Yes, those three really are great. Fascinating last wordless encounter between Prospera and Caliban as well. Is there some sense that Prospera feels defeated by Caliban?

[crowleycrow]

This one's hard. Modern producers understand Caliban as a represntative of the Other suppressed and enslaved by the white imperialist. It's hard to imagine Shakespeare thinking that way. To him Caliban was a unique magical figure like Ariel, and genuinely darkly evil and stupid. I think the ending where Caliban ascends away DID suggest that at least he'd regained his hereditary island.