On Sunday afternoon we went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform The Tempest. This is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's plays. I love the way love and vengeance and revenge and reconciliation are all intertwined throughout the plot. I love how what could have been a great tragedy turns itself into a happy ending. In many ways I have always felt that it is the most human of all of Shakespeare's plays, and that Prospero is his greatest character. I also have always had a great love for the character of Ariel, the spirit freed from the prison of a cloven pine, only be given another service.
This was a very unusual production of The Tempest. Instead of being set on the usual tropical island, this one was placed in the Arctic, and the spirits were portrayed as being Native American in nature. There was ice and snow and a very memorable use of a dead seal.
While every member of the cast was first rate, three really stood out. John Light, who had been so fine as Brutus in Julius Caesar, was a wonderful Caliban. Julian Bleach was an Ariel for all of the ages.
And Patrick Stewart - oh, Patrick Stewart - he was born to play Prospero. Ah that final speech. Ah, the setting free of Ariel. Ah, this is what theater should always be - a miracle before your eyes and ears and heart and soul.
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