Some thoughts surrounding production of

The Tempest

UMEMIYA Yu

The following note shows the result of an on going research on the play by
William Shakespeare: The Tempest. The production at the Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC), one of the leading theatre companies in England, demonstrated
another innovative version of the play on their main stage in Stratford-upon-Avon,
followed by its tour down to Barbican theatre in London in . It did not include
an extraordinary interpretation or unique casting pattern but demonstrated the
extended development of technology available on stage. This note introduces the
feature and the reception of the production in the latter half, with a brief summary
of the play and a survey of the performance history of The Tempest in the first half.

The story of The Tempest

Compared to other plays by Shakespeare, The Tempest is a rare example that
follows the classical idea of three unities of time, place and action, deriving from
Aristotle, then prescribed by Philip Sydney in Renaissance England . The similar
structure has already practiced in The Comedy of Errors in , but while this
early comedy is often described as a simple farce, The Tempest contains various
complications in terms of plots and theatrical possibilities.
The story of The Tempest opens with a storm at sea, conjured by the magic of
Prospero, the main character of the play. He is manipulating the tempest from the
nearby island where he lives with his daughter, Miranda, and shares the land with
two other fantastic creatures, Ariel and Caliban. Prospero was once the Duke of
Milan, but exiled by the plot of his own brother, Antonio, who succeeded in doing
so in conspiracy with Alonso, the King of Naples. The shipwreck has a purpose of
bringing the two to the island so that Prospero can fulfill his revenge. Antonio and
Alonso were on their voyage with other passengers and all became the causalities of

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the storm.
Apart from the past usurpation by Antonio, the play shows one possibility
of action by Sebastian to slay his brother Alonso starting from act , scene .
Additionally, in act , scene , Caliban claims to the two comical drifters, Stephano
and Trinculo, that the island was deprived by Prospero when Caliban s mother,
Sycorax, died. However, unlike other Shakespearean tragedies, none of these actions
result in fatal consequences and everyone finds their peace, Prospero forgives his
brother s past wrongs and leaves the magical island to return to his own country.

PROSPERO. I ll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I ll drown my book. ( . . - )

These lines, placed in the final act, suggest that Prospero abandons his ability
of magic and heads off to return to Western world. For some critics, this image is
linked to Shakespeare s own voice in retiring from the theatrical profession . The
recognition may even more strengthened by observing the happy reconciliation,
which is different from Shakespeare s series of revenge tragedies. What is more
interesting is that the play contains various types of distinct relationships, from that
of brothers, father and daughter, or servants and master. Especially the latter two
have attracted many academics to the enthusiastic discussions.
Since The Tempest was written around the time when England was
colonising the American continent, it is possible that Shakespeare had this current
circumstances in mind. Caliban and Ariel, both being the natives in the magical
island, serving the outsider Prospero with the occasional ill treatment, enhance the
reading in the context of colonial imperialism . As a result, Caliban has frequently
appeared as black, initially played by white actors. The first black actor, Canada Lee,
who took the part in , and wore a scaly costume and grotesque mask, moved
with an animal-like crouch, and emphasied Caliban s monstrousness . Since then,
Caliban has been portrayed in various ways on stages, from black slave to American
Indian , to show his otherness to Prospero s Western Caucasian world.
On the contrary, by maintaining a fair relationship with Prospero, native
sprite Ariel is often depicted as a happy and loyal servant, similar to Puck from A
Midsummer Night s Dream who calls himself the merry wanderer of the night

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( . . ) . However, unlike Oberon, the fairy King, Prospero is a living human with
magical power, rather than a supernatural being himself. Besides, Prospero chains
Ariel by using his past liberation of the sprite from the imprisonment. Together with
Ariel s constant plea for freedom, it is recognisable that the character fundamentally
shares the same nature with Caliban.
In terms of brotherhood, Antonio is depicted as a typical villain who tempts
Sebastian to plunge into fratricide. From the text itself, it is rather unclear why
Antonio is written as such an ambitious, envious and greedy person. The simplest
explanation is that he is the second-born rather than the first, and, as seen in plays
such as As You Like It, Shakespeare has the tendency of demanding a difficult life
for the second- or the third-born child. This uneven treatment among brothers and
sisters can be the reflection of Elizabethan and Jacobean patriarchy. More than the
inequality between ages, that of gender, implied through the relationship between
Prospero and Miranda, father and daughter, has become closely attached to the idea
of feminism.
The dramatic features mentioned above do not restrict their presence in the
field of academia, but certainly expressed in various modes in the stage productions.

Early performance of The Tempest

The rare surviving record of an early performance of the play reads that
Hallowmas night was presented at Whitehall before the Kings Majesty a play
Called the Tempest (modernised by me). This suggests that the play was staged at
the court of James I on st of November . During the winter of the following
year, the play was once again called to the court, with the masque inserted, to
celebrate the betrothal of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine . From
these historical facts, the play is often connected to court performances with the
involvement of the royal family in the masque scene placed in act , scene . John G.
Demaray argues that Shakespeare had court performance in mind while composing
the play by observing the usage of all of theatrical arts – song, speech, scenery, dance
and costume iconography . E. K. Chambers opposes to this idea seeing the relation
of the court performance of The Winter s Tale on th of November, with the
th
show at the Globe on of May in the same year . For Chambers, it is not rare
for one specific play to be performed both at court and at public playhouse. Keith
Sturgess claims that the play s delicate strategies and carefully mounted shows

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would have been blown away in the open air at the Globe , but the machineries
involved especially in the masque scene, used for ascending or descending the actors,
as well as the trap door, may suggest that it is a play for the public theatres owned by
the King s Men, the Globe and, most likely, the Blackfriars Theatre .
After the Restoration, until William Charles Macready revived Shakespeare s
original text on to the stage in , the majority of productions were based on the
adaptation by William Davenant and John Dryden: The Tempest, or The Enchanted
Island, which appeared in . Other than this version, the operatic play by
Thomas Shadwell with music by Henry Purcell dating from was highly
appreciated . The popularity of these works, especially Davenant and Dryden s
version, can be seen from the fact that most plays that followed were based on the
prior adaptations rather than Shakespeare s original. The anonymous opera from
holds the name of Dryden on the title page , although it contains some
passages which are not in the previous work . Similar involvement of Davenant
and Dryden s hands is noticeable in another anonymous play that appeared in
under the title of The Shipwreck , as well as in John Philip Kemble s version
from . Whether it is Shakespeare s original, or an adaptation created by these
successors, the feature of those early performances was to have elaborate theatrical
machinery with spectacular stages filled with music. Towards the end of the
nineteenth century, however, it is said that the mode of representation was divided
in two different ways: one maintaining luxurious sets, and the other, a simple bare
stage . This shift of interest in terms of theatrical expression allowed people to
consider the play s context in depth for more unique representation.

Unique casting of The Tempest on modern stage

Having female actors to perform on stage was banned in Shakespeare s time,
and the roles were presented by boy actors, as shown in the scene of the mechanicals
in A Midsummer Night s Dream. The new custom was introduced from the
continent right after the Restoration in , and the emergence of female actors
might have prompted Davenant and Dryden to expand and add the enrolment
of the female characters in their adaptation . Affected by this arrival of the new
theatrical manner, Ariel was once played mostly by female actors , even though the
role has become male dominant in the present time. The effect of casting a female
as Ariel allows us to consider the relationship with Prospero in a different way, first

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as an obedient girl, then possibly as a contrast to his daughter Miranda.
The movement of exploring the figure of female actors even encouraged
the directors to cross-cast the character of Prospero. As a result, in , Vanessa
Redgrave performed the role of Prospero at Shakespeare s Globe in London. This
production was noteworthy, especially because of its casting, as Ariel was played by
another female actor, Geraldine Alexander, and Kananu Kirimi, who has a Kenyan
heritage, took the role of Miranda . Thus, the production, directed by Lenka
Udovicki, seems to have pushed the boundaries of transposing gender roles and
added the variety in ethnicity.
In , a film by Julie Taymor cast Helen Mirren as Prospera in a fantastical
adaptation . Six years later, Harriet Walter played Prospero as the conclusion of
the all-female production trilogy at Donmar Warehouse in London. Walter played
Brutus in Julius Caesar ( ), the title role in Henry IV ( ), and finally Prospero
in , under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd, who had set the three plays in a
women s prison. The productions, that Walter herself claimed as the reflection
of the cultural change , can be regarded as having an extreme importance in the
theatrical landscape of the past twenty years . Even though Walter s performance
received both positive and negative criticism , the whole project has shone a light
on the fertile possibilities of breaking free from conventional ideas about casting .

Performance history at the Royal Shakespeare Company

Unsurprisingly, the RSC, with its long legacy of producing Shakespearean
performances, has not been an exception in exploring new forms of representation.
The company has not yet radically cast a female Prospero, but the study of their
previous performances may allow us to understand how they have dealt with the
play. Throughout the history of the RSC, originally founded at the Shakespeare
Memorial Theatre, that opened with a performance of Much Ado About Nothing in
, there have been productions of The Tempest, dating back to . The
seasons were organised in the style of festivals that lasted, at the beginning, for a
few weeks, to half a year towards the s . Producers such as Frank Benson, W.
Bridges-Adams, and Ben Iden Payne took charge of those festivals to exploit the
sentimental value of productions in Stratford-upon-Avon. However, according to
Michael Mullin, even their best work would probably seem rough and ready by
today s polished standards .

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 Some thoughts surrounding 2016 production of The Tempest

From the time when The Tempest was first performed by the company in ,
the trend of casting female actors as Ariel has been present. The custom started
with the involvement of Miss Johnstone, and up till , when Margaret Leighton
played the role alongside Ralph Richardson s Prospero in the production directed
by Michael Benthall, the role of Ariel was mainly dominated by female actors .
Caliban is often portrayed as the figure that would counterpart the character
of Ariel, opposite in size, sex, attitude and colour . Although I have hinted the
possible similarity between the two, the stage version seems to aim for much clearer
distinction with the involvement of the difference of external appearances. The fact
that even blacked make-ups were used for the white actors who took the role in the
early stage suggests that it was the choice available.
When it comes to the significance of this casting pattern in the RSC, the
performance directed by Michael Boyd is worth mentioning. This production
featured Kananu Kirimi as Ariel, the first female to play the role on the main stage
at Stratford since . It also incorporated the first black actor, Geff Francis,
to play Caliban , and together with the feature of West Indian female Ariel, the
production obviously strongly emphasised the colonialism and the issue of race.
Prior to Boyd s production, James Macdonald had already experimented with
the impact of this new casting pattern for his touring production in . Here,
Macdonald appointed Gilz Terera as Ariel, and Nikki Amuka-Bird as Miranda. It
did not show the cross gender representation of the characters, but both Ariel and
Miranda were played by black actors, and therefore, it might have added an extra
dimension to the impression attached to the relationship between Prospero and
Miranda, as well as that of Prospero and Ariel.
Since Boyd s expansion of the possibility of further exploration at the main
stage of the RSC, several productions have ventured to present something unique.
In , Janice Honeyman directed the play with Antony Sher taking the part of
Prospero at the Courtyard Theatre while the main theatre was under construction
for the refurbishment. In this production, two natives of the magical island, Ariel,
played by Atandwa Kani, and Caliban, by John Kani, both appeared as black
characters, clearly connecting the theme of the play with the problem of colonial
discrimination.
The director, Jonathan Miller had already touched the subject, preceding the
RSC, with his casting in at the Mermaid Theatre, and in at the Old Vic.
Former productions had been realised by the casting of Norman Beaton as Ariel

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and Rudolph Walker as Caliban , and for the latter, Walker returned to the same
role but Ariel was played by a Nigerian actor, Cyril Nri . Christine Dymkowski
suggests that Miller had the intention of casting black female actor for Ariel, but
failing to do so, Dymkowski thinks Miller had missed a real chance to explore
parallels between colonisation of blacks by whites and women by men . Limiting
the black actors to perform the characters in the island could make Prospero s harsh
treatment, resentment, anger, outrage and frustration imposed on mainly Caliban
and partially on Ariel more meaningful, by taking the surrounding environment of
slavery into account.
Although it is less radical when compared to the production of , another
interesting representation appeared at the stage of the Swan Theatre in .
The one directed by Peter Glanville incorporated a puppeteer, Jonathan Dixon,
to maneuver the life-sized green monster Caliban. Casting a West Indian actor,
Anneika Rose, in the part of Miranda might be a reflection of the production in
. It is certainly difficult to claim that this version made a significant impact,
but Glanville s effort can be understood as how far the play requires the production
team to further explore the possibility of new representations.

The Tempest directed by Gregory Doran

In , Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as the whole country and many parts
th
of the world, celebrated the anniversary of Shakespeare s death. As the
main production to honour the great legacy of Shakespeare, the RSC produced
The Tempest at their main theatre by the direction of the current artistic director,
Gregory Doran. Having a two-year partnership with Intel, a world-renowned
processing company, the RSC seems to have opened the door to a new theatrical
experience. The stage design, resembling the frame of a ripped ship, and the
flooring with numerous uneven lining, seems rather uninventive, but they are
occasionally ornamented by the use of projection lighting. Similar technology has
been incorporated in the production of A Midsummer Night s Dream, directed by
Julie Taymor originally opened in at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn,
New York, which was filmed and broadcast around the world in . However,
with the additional assistance from the Imaginarium Studios, which specialises in
performance capture technology, known for their involvement in the film industry
such as The Planet of the Apes series ( , ), The Hobbit series ( , ),

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Avengers ( ), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ( ) , the RSC s modern
production seems to have gone an extra step forward.
Ariel, played by Mark uartley, does not appear in a single form. In order to
fulfill the nature of a sprite, he transforms from a nymph o th sea ( . . ) to the
figure of this harpy ( . . ), not by changing his costume or adding several external
materials. The production, with cutting-edge technology, created an avatar of Ariel
by attaching multiple sensors to uartley for the live performance capture of the
Imaginarium Studios, processing the movement through the system developed by
Intel, and projecting the live image to a screen set on the stage . The difference
between an ordinary projection system and the latest one is that the animated image
is not pre-recorded but live streamed. The Imaginarium Studios designed various
shapes of Ariel based on the physique and movement of uartley and allowed the
actor himself to add the motion on the live stage. The technology even captured the
facial expression of uartley which gave a convincing impression to the digitally
animated avatar.
Especially in two scenes, the production realised a spectacle that had never
been achieved in the past due to theatrical restrictions. In the middle of act , scene ,
Prospero reminisces about the time when he saved Ariel:

PROSPERO: thou wast a spirit too delicate

To act her [Sycorax s] earthy and abhorred commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee
By help of her more potent ministers,
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine, within which rift
Imprisoned thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years: within which space she died,
And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans
As fast as mill-wheels strike. ( . . - ; square brackets
mine)

The description suggests that Ariel was encased in the tree and left alone for
twelve years. Certainly, it is not a requirement to show the actual imprisonment on
stage. However, by the use of the avatar technology, the growing tree, projected at
the pillar shaped drape with the sheer white cloth from the ceiling, conceals Ariel

133
and then releases with the cue from Prospero. The effect reassures the pain of Ariel
from the past, and functions well as a reminder of the beginning of the master-
servant relationship between the two .
In act , scene , the Folio, the only text deriving from the time of Shakespeare,
contains two significant stage directions.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel] (like a Harpy) claps

his wings upon the Table, and with a quaint device the
Banquet vanishes. (B r)

He vanishes in Thunder: then (to soft music) Enter the

shapes again, and dance (with mocks and mows) and
carrying out the table. (B r; both modernised by me)

The directions I have quoted above imply that the stranded nobilities are
frightened by the emergence of Ariel. There are two key words which may challenge
the directorial decisions on stage productions, such as Harpy and vanish . The
latter might be realised by the use of the trap door placed in the centre of the
stage floor even in Shakespeare s time. When it comes to modern stage, there
might be other means of creating the same effect. In order to transform Ariel into
a convincing monster with half-woman and half-bird figure, past productions
have, for example, incorporated elaborate costumes with gigantic wings, possibly
hoisting the actor from above. This way of portrayal has not yet extremely advanced
from years past when most of the stage effects were relied on the costumes
of the actors. It is probably because of the nature of stage drama to require the
indispensable presence of living human bodies.
In the production of - , Ariel appears at the right hand side of the stage
in his usual green painted form. While he maneuvers, imitating the movement of a
bird, the projected Harpy flies, hovering over the stage. This means of representation
does not necessarily make the audience believe that the real Harpy has arrived at the
stage, but is a convincing way to demonstrate Ariel transforming into the shape of
the monster . uartley himself mentions in the interview that the simplest usage
of harness enables the actors to perform the character that the normal human body
cannot. However, if a person can actually sense the feeling of transformation to
different creatures, it would provide the role to have another dimension .

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The two scenes could not be more visually appealing if the RSC did not have
the supports from the most advanced technologies from the field of film. However,
in terms of theatrical experience, it might be rather too soon to fully accept the
involvement of live motion capture, such as that which created the avatar of Ariel.
Since the nature of projection is to illuminate the screen with images, they can
become distorted depending on which angle the images are seen. Certainly, when
the projection is observed from the front, it might even create a three-dimensional
effect, but most of the auditorium has a wide seating space.
Before the completion of the reconstruction in , the main theatre of the
RSC was a large proscenium arch stage, designed by Elizabeth Scott in the s,
which resembled a cinema . The former Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was also
in the same structure but much smaller, with a capacity of . Two early theatres
equally provided cinema-like experiences , and Jonathan Bate suggests that the
world of the play was separated from the world of the audience . This feature
can be regarded as a defect of the large proscenium stage, but since the projection
technology is similar to film broadcasting, the old auditoriums might have allowed
Dorran s version to show its full capability.
Nevertheless, it is also true that the company has long been considering the
way of narrowing the gap between actors and audiences , and through the recent
renovation, the main stage was transformed into a thrust stage, the grander version
of RSC s other theatre placed next door: The Swan Theatre. The capacity became
, seating, plus standing , with the audience surrounding three sides of the
stage to secure a more intimate experience, much closer to Shakespeare s original
practice in the Elizabethan theatre. Unlike the proscenium arch style, the actors
do not necessarily project their lines facing forward, but show a natural angle of
exchanging words especially for the scenes of conversation. Unfortunately, the
advantage that can be acquired from the unique structure of the Elizabethan type of
auditorium seems to have worked against the production in question, or at least did
not work in its absolute favour.

Reception of the The Tempest

Dominic Maxwell criticised the production in Stratford-upon-Avon saying
[t]here are some big pluses from the digital element of the evening, but the
terrible, charmless trickery of the motion-capture technology is not one of them .

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The characteristics that were most praised from the production were the physical
presence of a leading actor and the mixture of modern technology and the human
body. As Michael Billington puts it: the kaleidoscopic visual spectacle pales besides
the show s human values and its moving affirmation of forgiveness . For Billigton,
the digital projections in the production did not upstage the actor, Simon Russell
Beale, who returned to the RSC after a twenty-three-year absence, coincidentally
after playing Ariel in . Christopher Hart, on the other hand, values the
delicate acting of Joe Dixon as Caliban, and claims that the visual effects are [j]
ust moderately nice to look at, as well as sometimes distracting your attention from
the verse being spoken down below by those primitive carbon-based life forms
known as actors – where the true magic lies . For a reviewer, Caliban, embodied
by a British actor with South African parents , seemed old-school among the
fascinating modern technology , but, it is clear that most of the audiences cherished
the verbal portrayal by the actors rather than the sensational spectacle .
In addition, one specific voice from the general audience should be taken
into account here to consider the problem with this new theatre technology. An
independent reviewer posted an article on his webpage, severely criticising the
visibility of the effects. He writes that all he could see were the bright blinking
Cyclops eyes of an army of projectors firing simultaneously into life from all
quarters of the theatre, announcing that some privileged(?) members of the audience
were about to have some blurry images projected onto various randomly-appearing
diaphonous screens . The reviewer even accuses the production by saying [a]ny
drama production which values only a minority of the audience is – whatever its
qualities for that minority – a failure . Receiving a fine seat for his second visit to
the theatre as a complimentary gesture from the company, the reviewer admits that
he had a positive impression compared to his prior experience .
As it is a live viewing from various angles and levels, the auditorium, unavoidably
contains several seats with unsatisfactory perceptions. Most of the theatres clearly
indicate the seats with restricted views and so as to compensate the dissatisfaction
from the audiences, they lower the ticket price. The RSC is not an exception, and
remarks that as [t]he nature of the thrust stage in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
auditorium means that it is almost impossible to guarantee every seat will hold a
clear view of every aspect of the production at all times .

From these points, it is understood that no matter how the company prepares a

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 Some thoughts surrounding 2016 production of The Tempest

production with thorough consideration to audiences accessibility, the show could

receive a level of some complaints about visibility of the stage. However, it is also
true that Doran s use of hi-tech projection only had its full effect once seen from
certain angles in the auditorium. Since this stage machinery only recently became
available, having a margin of improvement is not surprising. The significant
thing to be noticed here is that the production showed the future possibility of
theatre representations, as well as the importance of live actors on stage, and the
complicated nature of the Shakespearean plays.

Sidney. Philip. A Defense of Poesie and Poems, London: Cassell and Company Ltd., .
pp. - .
Shakespeare. William. The Comedy of Errors. Ed. Charles Whitworth. New York: Oxford
University Press, . The Oxford Shakespeare. pp. - .
The act, scene and line references for The Tempest in this essay are from Shakespeare.
William. The Tempest. Eds. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. London: Macmillan
Publishers Ltd., . The RSC Shakespeare.
Shakespeare. William. The Tempest. Ed. Stephan Orgel. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
. The Oxford Shakespeare.
Bate and Rasmussen eds. p. .
Vaughan. Alden T and Virginia Mason Vaughan. Shakespeare s Caliban: A Cultural History.
New York: Cambridge University Press, . p. .
Vaughan. pp. - .
The act, scene and line reference is from Shakespeare. William. A Midsummer Night s
Dream. Ed. Peter Holland. Oxford: Clarendon Press, . The Oxford Shakespeare.
Chambers. E. K. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Vol. . Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, . pp. - .
Chambers. E. K. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Vol. . Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, . p. .
Shakespeare. William. The Tempest. Eds. Alden Vaughan and Virginia Vaughan. London,
Arden Shakespeare, . p. .
Demaray. John G. Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness: The Tempest and the
Transformation of Renaissance Theatrical Forms. Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, .
p. .
Chambers. Vol. . p. .
Sturgess. Keith. A quaint device : The Tempest at the Blackfriars . Jacobean Private
Theatre. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, . p. .
Vaughan and Vaughan eds. p. .
Bate and Rasmussen eds. pp. - .
Anon. The Tempest an Opera 1756. London: Cornmarket Press Ltd., . p.A r.

137
Guffey. George Robert. After The Tempest. Los Angeles: University of California Press,
. p.xv.
Anon. The Shipwreck 1780. London: Cornmarket Press Ltd., . p.A r.
Kemble. John Philip. The Tempest 1789. London: Cornmarket Press Ltd., . p.A r.
Bate and Rasmussen eds. p. .
Ibid. p. .
Vaughan and Vaughan eds. p. .
The Tempest. [http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/previous-productions/
the-tempest]. Web. . . .
Vaughan and Vaughan eds. p. .
Dalya Alberge. The Guardian. Actresses are driven to play men by lack of female roles –
Walter . . . .
Susannah Clapp.The Observer. Such stuff as dreams are made on . . . .
Dominic Maxwell. The Times. Review. . . .
Henry Hitchings. Evening Standard. Bold and triumphant break from conventional
casting . . . .
Ellis. Ruth. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. London: Winchester Publications Ltd.,
. pp. - .
The production records for the RSC performances are collected from the archive held in
the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust webpage. [http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/
rsc-performances]. Web. . . .
Ellis. pp. - .
Mullin. Michael with Karen Morris Muriello. Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon: A Catalogue-
Index to Productions of the Shakespeare Memorial / Royal Shakespeare Company, 1879-1978.
Vol. . London: Library Association, . p.xxi.
By , there are records of different casting productions. Judging from the name
there are only two incidents that the role is performed by male actors: David O Brien in
, and Alan Badel in .
Bate and Rasmussen eds. pp. - .
Ibid. p. .
Ibid. p. .
British Black and Asian Shakespeare Database. [https://bbashakespeare.warwick.ac.uk/
productions/tempest- -mermaid-theatre-london]. Web. . . .
British Black and Asian Shakespeare Database. [https://bbashakespeare.warwick.ac.uk/
productions/tempest- -old-vic-theatre-company]. Web. . . .
Shakespeare. William. The Tempest (Shakespeare in Production). Ed. Christine Dymkowski.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, . p. .
The detailed information concerning Julie Taymor s production can be found on the
webpage. [http://amidsummernightsdreamfilm.com]. Web. . . .
Imaginarium Productions. [http://www.imdb.com/company/co /?ref_=fn_al_

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 Some thoughts surrounding 2016 production of The Tempest

co_ #specialX effectsX company]. Web. . . .

Details of the production are from the programme of The Tempest, sold for the
performances between th June to th August , at the Barbican Theatre in London.
A clear image of the scene from the production can be seen at the top of the article by
Intel, Royal Shakespeare Company Reimagines The Tempest. [https://iq.intel.com/royal-
shakespeare-company-reimagines-the-tempest/]. Web. . . .
A clear image of the scene from the production can be seen at the bottom of the article
by Intel, Royal Shakespeare Company Reimagines The Tempest. [https://iq.intel.com/royal-
shakespeare-company-reimagines-the-tempest/]. Web. . . .
Crompton. Sarah. Sunday Times Magazine. . . .
Bate. Jonathan. The New Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Thrusting into the Future. [https://www.
prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/new-royal-shakespeare-theatre-thrust-stage].
Web. . .
A History of Stratford-upon-Avon s Theatres. [https://cdn .rsc.org.uk/sitefinity/press-
resources/rsc-history- .pdf?sfvrsn= ]. Web. . .
Ward. David. Transformation: Shakespeare s New Theatre. Stratford-upon-Avon: RSC
Enterprise Ltd., . P. .
Bate. The New Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Ward. p. .
Ibid. p. .
Maxwell. Dominic. The Times. . . .
Billington. Michael. Review. The Guardian. . . .
Hart. Christopher. Review. Sunday Times. . . .
British Black and Asian Shakespeare Database. [https://bbashakespeare.warwick.ac.uk/
people/joe-dixon]. Web. . . .
Cavendish. Dominic. Review. Daily Telegraph. . . .
Letts. uentin. Review. Daily Mail. . . .
The Bard of Tysoe. Play d some tricks of desperation . [https://tysoebard.blogspot.
jp/ / /playd-some-tricks-of-desperation.html]. Web. . . .
The Bard of Tysoe. A tale of two sittings . [https://tysoebard.blogspot.jp/ / /a-tale-
of-two-sittings.html]. Web. . . .
Ibid.
Sutherland. Gill. Review. Stratford Herald. . . .

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