Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Roberts, Peter

Titel

The Tempest

Ist Teil von

• Early Modern Literary Studies, 2019, Vol.21 (1), p.1-7

Ort / Verlag

Sheffield: Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Wales's capital city has a neo-medieval Victorian edifice at its centre, directly opposite a concentration of well-frequented licenced premises.3 Inside the grounds of this castle was a small permanent set, a bare platform with an upper level half-concealed by an erected cloth, the whole resembling a ship with a forecastle and a sail: slanting wooden hatches under the upper stage burst open to issue sailors in 1.1, but also doubled as the mouth of Prospero's cave. Prospero and Ariel ascended some steps to this upper deck to observe other characters invisibly.4 Pre-performance, as a sign that the play would be starting soon, six of the actors assembled in front of the stage and two of them started singing unaccompanied (the appropriate 'We be three poor mariners'); gradually, more members of the cast joined them, singing different vocal parts. [...]after Prospero's epilogue, Ariel re-entered playing a pipe; then all the cast danced to an a cappella 'Now is the month of Maying'. Today it gives the Lord Chamberlain's Men the opportunity to take theatre to all parts of the country, providing access to Shakespeare for communities who might otherwise have little chance to experience his work.11 However powerful an attraction the idea of 'the provinces' as an inchoate place of deep cultural poverty and short attention spans has for metropolitan scholars and theatre practitioners, Laurie E. Maguire concludes that there is no evidence that drama was specially adapted or shortened for touring purposes [...] there are records of mystery cycles being performed in provincial towns as late as the 1570s and 1580s.