Analysis Of 'The Tempest'

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The Tempest
The first design hurdle that needs to be conquered right off the bat is how the magic will be depicted. In a film, CGI takes care of this tricky aspect of the play. However, in a stage adaptation, this will have to be tweaked. If Furman did The Tempest, lighting design would produce of many of these effects. I envision Robert’s original plan for Pillowman, with a scrim that allows either shadow-like projections, or shadow puppets for Katurian’s stories as a perfect solution for scenes in the Tempest involving magic. Instead of taking an actor and giving him/her extensive prosthetic makeup, there should instead just be a voice actor that plays Ariel. On stage, Ariel would be seen as a shadow on the scrim, instead of a living entity. …show more content…

The color of either black or white would express the morality of the character subjected to this magic from the point of view of Prospero. there is much moral ambiguity with each character, however since Prospero holds all the supernatural power he is the sole judge, and executor of justice. In his mind, there are immoral people who deserve punishment, (and in these cases the magic used against them would be a solid black shadow), and those who are righteous (these would have only the outline in black with the inside being white.) This will help the audience keep the many characters straight in addition to supporting the theme. As the play progressed, they may also find themselves predicting the color of the magic used on a certain character, thus placing themselves in a role similar to Prospero.
The end scene of the Tempest would involve Prospero finishing the epilogue then waiting for the start of applause to break his staff on his knee--and as he does so the projections would erupt around Prospero in a rainbow of colors. I admit this would be a tacky ending, but when a character asks the audience to applaud him to give him validation for his decision, it this design choice out of …show more content…

Like Cymbeline, this play is wrought with deception and disguises that could confuse the audience. So if I were to stage this production, I would again find a way to have a color scheme for each character so even in disguise the audience would be able to follow along.
When reading this play I personally pictured the actor with the characters name scrawled on a poster that hung round their neck, and then when in disguise this poster would have their real name crossed out and their secret identity is written out.
On top of keeping the identity of each character crystal clear, it would also add the feel of a farce. This would be a way to remedy the discourse between the plot of the play and the research I did about Behn. She was praised for being a feminist writer, however practically every female character gets sexually assaulted in this plot. It reminds me of The Lieutenant of Inishmore where McDonnough uses graphic scenes meant to shock and horrify the audience to highlight the absurdity of violence. In The Rover’s case, I believe Behn was trying to show the absurdity of the treatment of

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