The Tempest
Watching The Tempest on the big screen was an interesting recent experience for a group of GBHS students. Having lately performed their own version of Shakespeare’s final stage production, we hoped to be wowed by the stellar cast that director Julie Taymor had pulled together for her adaptation of the play.
The Tempest opens with the King of Naples’ ship stranded in a great storm, somewhere in the Mediterranean. The storm has been conjured by the great Prospera, formerly the duchess of Milan, but who is now exiled to a lonely island – a variation on Shakespeare’s original play in which the character Prospero is male. Prospera wishes to exact revenge on those who constructed her downfall. With their ship destroyed by the storm, the King and his men are dispersed about Prospera’s isle, where events begin to unfold.
I found the acting very good and the casting fantastic: Helen Mirren does not put a foot wrong as Prospera and brings a human dimension to her character. Russell Brand keeps us entertained as the jester Trinculo, and I liked Reeve Carney (currently starring in the most expensive Broadway production of all time, Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, which was initially directed by Julie Taymor) as young prince Ferdinand.
The nuts and bolts of the film were slick and polished. The special effects were very good, the sets were gorgeous, whilst the soundtrack, with some surprising rock sequences, added a lively feel to the film.
I thought, however, that film never quite reached the heights that it promised. The ending felt slightly forced, and more should have been made of the final scenes. I also found, as a cast member in GBHS’s adaptation, that the film lacked the powerful intimacy that Shakespeare’s plays, when performed in theatre, bring: there was no personal connection between the audience and the film’s characters.
The film stands well alone, however, compared with a stage production, and though it left this audience wanting more, it wasn’t quite Shakespeare.
Hamish Clark (Prospero)
