Mercury’s Wings Theatre Company is proud to present our 14th Independent

Gold Coast production:

The Tempest

O brave new world, that has such people in’t!

by William Shakespeare

HOTA

https://hota.com.au/theatre/the-tempest/

supported by RADF The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and

Gold Coast City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

Our Mission:

Mercury's Wings (MW) contributes to a distinctive voice from the Gold Coast region; embracing our

heritage, celebrating our diversity, and encouraging our youth, using the tools of disciplined theatre

technique, creativity, a spirit of openness, professionalism, respect and playfulness.

Founded and supported by internationally trained and experienced artists of excellence, we include

and share our work with emerging artists, ensuring a lasting and sustainable legacy.

We are committed to on-going professional development for our artists and extending the reach of

our audience regionally, nationally and internationally.

Play Synopsis:

Written circa 1610-11, The Tempest opens during a storm created by Prospero. It envelopes a ship containing the Queen of Naples, her son, her foolish servants, wise Gonzalo and Prospero’s own brother Antonio.

Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan. His brother betrayed him, seizing his title and property twelve years earlier. Prospero and his daughter Miranda were put out to sea. Miraculously, they both survived and arrived safely on this island, where Prospero learned to control the magic that he now uses to manipulate everyone on the island.

Also on the island is the sprite Ariel and Caliban, son of the witch Sycorax. Although Prospero at first rescued Ariel and nurtured Caliban, they are both now imprisoned by him and long for freedom.

The survivors from the shipwreck are enchanted by magic, fall in love, drink wine, confront the ugly truth, and at last find redemption, in what is claimed to be Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre.

Cut

The ensemble:

MW is proud as always to present a dynamic, intergenerational, diverse ensemble, with a breath-

taking array of experience, training and skills.

Leading the cast is Dr Patrick Mitchell as Prospero. Patrick’s resumé reads like a directory of Australian

theatre: Sydney Theatre Company, South Australian Theatre Company, Darwin Theatre Company,

and then there are the companies as Artistic Director: La Boite, Darwin Theatre Company, Freewheels

Theatre Company in Newcastle, The Australian Theatre of the Deaf in Sydney, the Riverina Theatre

Company, La Boite Theatre, Canberra Youth Theatre, Australian Theatre for Young People, Access

Arts and Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre in Darwin.

Alicia Jones is fearsome as Ariel. Alicia’s bold and unpredictable physicality, underpinned by 10 years

of training will have you on the edge of your seat. Her Indigenous heritage (Palawa) and advocacy is

integral to The Tempest production concept. A nationally established artist, Alicia has also designed

and created the set.

James Anderson creates the role of beast-like slave Caliban. The founder of MW, James has a versatile

repertoire: from Shakespearen roles to Captain Milkbeard for Queensland Theatre of Puppetry, and

Vladimir in Waiting for Godot. He has performed at the International Actors’ Fellowship,

Shakespeare’s Globe, the title role for Tadashi Suzuki’s Toga International Theatre Festival Japan,

and recently was invited to Complicité workshops in the UK.

Two well-known Gold Coast theatre scene actors will be busy performing dual roles: Tracie Filmer

(Mary Poppins, Jesus Christ Superstar) in the traditionally male role of King Alonso, becomes Queen

Alonsa, and celebrates her comedic talents as the drunken butler Stephano. Tracie is currently to be

seen in the ABC drama Harrow, and has just been cast in an Australian TV series (title not permitted

to be disclosed) to be premiered on Netflix in addition to appearances on Neighbours & the hilarious

web series Stage Mums. David Law (Oliver, The Fantastics, Macbeth) is a formidable performer,

contributing stage combat and professional wrestling skills, together with acrobatics, a degree from

Bond and rugged good looks! Like Tracie, he boasts TV credits including Flipper & The Wayne

Manifesto. David applies his virtuosic skills to bring to life both usurping brother Duke Antonio &

bewildered servant Trinculo.

The young lovers Ferdinand & Miranda are played by charismatic and dedicated 17 year olds Sheree

Pirika & Ryan Littler. Both have trained in physical theatre and performed in numerous challenging

works. Ryan is already writing, producing and editing short films.

Respected Gold Coast theatre elder Joel Beskin plays wise Gonzalo. Ever young at heart and always

inspiring, he has played Shakespeare’s ghost in Battering the Bard, a tattooed- Bikie as Porter in

Macbeth and the title role in The Turn Of Winston Haggle.

Claudine Anderson (neé Stephen-Smith) NIDA

Director/Co-Producer

“an assurance impossible to fault” Peter Halstead BBC Plays and Players Endgame

“inspired” “quirky” “refreshing” Australian Stage Magazine Art

Claudine’s professional career in the arts commenced with a soloist position in a German ballet

company. She remained in Europe for ten years, performing with Musiktheater im Revier, L’Opèra de

Metz, Tanztheater Regenbogen, Oldenburgishes Staatstheater, and musicals, receiving outstanding

reviews for Anita in West Side Story ("completely outshone by Claudine Stephen-Smith as Anita"

Jochen Schmidt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 1995), and Buddy Holly (Peggy-Sue & vocals).

Her work has been performed throughout Queensland, and in both existing and innovative

performance spaces. Claudine’s work includes physical theatre, classic & contemporary text, dance

and original work. She has taught at numerous private dance & drama institutions, including NIDA,

QUT, NYFA, HOTA

Characters in the Play Prospero - The play’s protagonist, and father of Miranda. Twelve years before the events of the play, Prospero was the duke of Milan. His brother, Antonio, in concert with Alonso, king of Naples, usurped him, forcing him to flee in a boat with his daughter. The honest lord Gonzalo aided Prospero in his escape. Prospero has spent his twelve years on the island refining the magic that gives him the power he needs to punish and forgive his enemies.

Miranda - The daughter of Prospero, Miranda was brought to the island at an early age and has never seen any men other than her father and Caliban, though she dimly remembers being cared for by female servants as an infant. Because she has been sealed off from the world for so long, Miranda’s perceptions of other people tend to be naïve and non-judgmental. She is compassionate, generous, and loyal to her father. Ariel - Prospero’s spirit helper. Ariel is referred to in most criticism as “he,” but Ariel’s gender and physical form are ambiguous. Rescued by Prospero from a long imprisonment at the hands of the witch Sycorax, Ariel is Prospero’s servant until Prospero decides to release him. He is mischievous and ubiquitous, able to traverse the length of the island in an instant and to change shapes at will. He carries out virtually every task that Prospero needs accomplished in the play. Caliban - Another of Prospero’s servants. Caliban, the son of the now-deceased witch Sycorax, acquainted Prospero with the island when Prospero arrived. Caliban believes that the island rightfully belongs to him and has been stolen by Prospero. His speech and behaviour is sometimes coarse and brutal, as in his drunken scenes with Stephano and Trinculo and sometimes eloquent and sensitive, as in his rebukes of Prospero in Act I and in his description of the eerie beauty of the island in Act III. Ferdinand - Son and heir of Alonso. Ferdinand seems in some ways to be as pure and naïve as Miranda. He falls in love with her upon first sight and happily submits to servitude in order to win her father’s approval. Antonio - Prospero’s brother. Antonio is power hungry and has usurped Prospero’s position of Duke of Milan by conspiring with Alonso (Alonsa in MWTC production).

Trinculo & Stephano - Trinculo, a jester, and Stephano, a drunken butler, are two minor members of the shipwrecked party. They provide a comic foil to the other, more powerful pairs of Prospero and Alonsa and Antonio. Their drunken boasting and petty greed reflect and deflate the quarrels and power struggles of Prospero and the other noblemen.

Post-Colonial Theory and The Tempest

The Tempest can be interpreted in terms of postcolonial theory, dealing with literature in the following ways:

• The way in which literature by the colonising culture distorts the experience and realities, inscribing the inferiority of the colonised people.

• Literature by colonised peoples which attempts to articulate their identity and reclaim their past in the face of that past’s inevitable otherness.

Colonialism and Post-Colonialism in The Tempest

Colonialism began much earlier with the discovery of America. It was a big issue during Shakespeare's time. The opening up of new frontiers and new land being discovered stimulated European information. Shakespeare's imagination has taken this into account. Exploration of new geographical spaces and control of those lands by the explorers is basically what we know by colonialism. Interpreted as white man's burden, colonization was a means of conquering new lands and imposing the coloniser's culture from on the native people. Prospero's capture of Sycorax's land and his treatment of the natives of the island have prompted many critics to interpret the play as working out the drama of colonisation. Caliban's protest against Prospero and his resistance to colonial power using the language taught by the colonizer helps us interpret the play as a postcolonial text.

The Tempest has often been interpreted as a play about colonialism primarily because Prospero comes to Sycorax's island, subdues her, rules the land and imposes his own culture on the people of the land. In this interpretation, Prospero is not seen primarily as a kind father of Miranda and kind ruler instead usurping Caliban's Island from him (Caliban). But putting him under slavery and undermining him as a monster, we can take Prospero as a representative of the Europeans who usurped the land of native Americans and enslaved them. He, as a sense of superiority, takes Caliban as half man. Pushing the native to the side, he places himself at the helm of affairs. He displaces Caliban's mother and treats her as a beast. He has full control over everything on the island. He makes Caliban work as his servant and calls him a thing of darkness. Caliban is being dehumanized or treated as subhuman. Like European fantasises the other people as a wild man, Prospero, in this play, describes Caliban as deformed, evil smiling, treacherous, drunkard, violent, savage, and devil worshipping etc. According to Prospero, he is not even human rather born devil.

Prospero; ''This thing of darkness, I call my own''

This shows the coloniser's attitude of looking down on the colonized people. Caliban is seen as a despicable entity. The whites looked down on the people of another colour. Some are born to dominate while others are born to be dominated. Caliban is treated as inferior. The coloniser used

words like light, knowledge and wisdom to refer himself while he used terms like darkness, ignorance and elemental to describe the colonised. This binary opposition shows how Prospero as a coloniser creates essences about the colonized people. Prospero sees himself as a ruler carrying out the project of civilization mission. The way light dispels darkness and knowledge dispels ignorance Prospero as a coloniser educates and civilizes Caliban but without much success. The civilizing mission is always accompanied by the politics of domination over the colonised. These elements allow us to study the play in the light of colonialism.

In colonial perspective, we see the play through the eyes of colonizers. But if we see the play from post-colonial perspective, Caliban is emerging against from the very beginning of domination. The hatred towards the coloniser is very great and strong among the colonized. Prospero manipulates everybody and every action in the play. Everybody on the island is manipulated by Prospero the way a puppet master controls his puppets. Caliban as a colonised inhabitant wants to strike back on the coloniser. Caliban is disobedient and creates problems for the coloniser. He attempts to rape Miranda and it is a threat posed to the safety of the colonizer. He tells Prospero that the land that Prospero rules was forcefully taken away from his mother. Like Caliban's protest, in world history, too protest has begun with the birth of colonialism itself. He simply says, ''I wish it were done''. Despite this, Caliban again and again claims that the land is to be inherited on him. It means he seems to be justified in claiming that the island originally belonged to him.

Caliban: ''I must eat my dinner. This Island is mine, by Sycorax, my mother.''

When Prospero tries to teach the language Caliban always refused to recite. Caliban, therefore, remains at the end what he was at the beginning. No change occurs in Caliban's nature. Here, Prospero, like White men is in the illusion that they are working for them (colonised). But such notion is failed because Caliban does not learn his (Prosper) language, even at the end of the play. The play shows the resistance of dominance class. Whatever he has learnt, he uses it in cursing Prospero. These attempts by Caliban to protest and resist the coloniser can support our post-colonial interpretation of the play.

(https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/globaldrama/the-tempest-as-a-play-about-colonialism.html#.WvQZFpe-kvg)

Close to Home – Some things we should know

Just because we don't call it slavery doesn't mean it's not slavery

Much like the words ‘invasion, ‘theft’, massacres’, and ‘wars’, Australia appears uncomfortable using the word slavery in reference to its own history. But no matter what you call it, the forcing of thousands upon thousands of people to work for no money, or only for basic rations, is tantamount to slavery by any meaningful definition.

Blackbirding, Stolen Wages, indentured service, indentured labour; are all words that have been used to avoid the harsh bite of the word. However, the realities of these words have always been much the same; unpaid labour, unsafe working conditions, exploitation, abuse, and decades long campaigns for justice and recognition - many of which are still ongoing. This is a significant relationship between Indigenous and white Australians.

Discussion topics

What parallels can be seen between the quote above and the actions within The Tempest?

Ariel and Caliban are both forced to serve Prospero; which of the two has it worse, and why?

-Give specific examples from the play.

Is Prospero justified in his treatment of Ariel and Caliban?

Slavery can tell us a lot about gender roles in society.

From the early 1900s, Aboriginal children were systematically placed into homes run by the state Government where they were to train for their servitude.

Boys taken to Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Home, which took up to 600 children in its 40-odd years of operation, trained them to be gainfully employed in manual or agricultural work when they turned 15 years of age. A large number of girls were taken to Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls' Home with to be trained to work in domestic service when they also turned 15.

Both roles demonstrate the prevalent racist ideology that Aboriginal people were inferior in intelligence and only fit to become the servants of the rest of society, and their 'employment' was driven by their gender, as opposed to their interest, talent or skills.

(https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/12/01/10-things-you-should-know-about-slavery-

australia)

• Question: How does The Tempest provoke our cultural memory?

Themes continued

Power and the abuse of Power

There are many instances throughout The Tempest of power, both worldly power and magical power. Indeed, it is a neglect (Prospero) and an abuse of power (Antonio) that has led Prospero to be located on the island. Prospero asserts his power over Caliban and Ariel throughout the play and controls Ariel with the promise of freedom to secure her loyalty. Prospero also controls Miranda and has a hand in controlling her affections towards Ferdinand. As the play progresses Prospero struggles with his use of power and how power has been used against him. He must reconcile within himself and with the audience in order that he can make peace with himself and those he has harmed.

• Question: Are there any characters that he does not reconcile with? Who and what does this

say about the theme of power?

Distinguishing "Man" from "Monster"

The Character of Caliban is addressed throughout the play as a monster, half fish and half man, a born devil and a thing most brutish. These are all ideas that have been imposed upon him by those who are not the original inhabitants of the island. Prospero and Miranda regard Caliban as a servant and Stephano refers to him as a servant-monster. They all believe that Caliban needs to be civilised and that once this has happened he will no longer be a ‘monster’. We cannot immediately dismiss Caliban as brutish or that he has become this way because of Prospero, which would be to judge him by conventional civilised standards. Caliban can be viewed in a number of ways, but it is helpful to regard him as a child of nature, an innocent that has suffered at the hands of outside forces.

• Discussion question: What are the parallels, if any, between the character of Caliban and the Indigenous population of Australia? Discuss, with evidence from the performance and/or the play.

• Caliban has some of the most poetic dialog in the play; why would Shakespeare give this type of dialog to a character perceived as ‘in-human’?

The Elements of Drama

Role and character, relationships, situation, voice, movement, focus, tension, space, time, language, symbol, audience, mood and atmosphere.

As you watch the performance think about:

• What was the directors vision for the performance? This can refer to the actual production

and also the wider social comment made.

• How did the actors manipulate Role/Character and the Relationships between the characters?

• How did the performance make use of the space? Were they successful in creating an ‘Island’?

• How did the actors use movement to develop their characters?

• What elements were used to create Mood? Think about lighting, sound – recorded and cast

created – projections and set pieces.