In the beginning...

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is the play we are rehearsing over the next term to perform within school and at the Brighton Fringe Festival. The Tempest is thought to have been written around 1610/11. It was published in 1623 in the first folio. The entire play is set on an island where Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been banished since she was 3, for 12 years.

On first reading the play I was challenged by the language as I hadn't seen the tempest for many years and it had been a long time since I worked with a Shakespearean text. After getting put into our groups I then discovered our theme alongside the tempest would be a kind of feminist slant, with Prospero traditionally a male father character being played by a women. I then watched the film of the tempest where Prospero is played by Helen Mirren.

Seeing it helped me to understand the story and begin to see the depth of it and the characters. I think it is important to see and hear Shakespeare as opposed to simply reading it. This is probably because it was how it was designed to be received but for a modern day audience you can stage the theme and the era to make it more accessible. This way the language doesn't create a barrier between us and Shakespeare and we can still relate to many timeless themes and realism's within his plays.