the tempest

The story told in The Tempest (the hurricane stirred up by the magician Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan; the shipwreck of the King of Naples on the shores of his mysterious island; the love at first sight between the King of Naples’s son and Miranda, Prospero’s young daughter) was long considered a fairy tale, a story of magic and fantastic apparitions. Then attention shifted to the figure of Prospero, seen as Shakespeare’s spokesman taking his leave of the theater. In the late Twentieth Century, however, the focus shifted to the slave Caliban, controversially interpreted as the embodiment of the victims of colonialism. But perhaps the appeal of The Tempest for theatergoers lies above all in the possibility of bringing the magic of theater to life, bringing to the stage a text that celebrates that very magic.

Translated into Italian by Paolo Bertinetti with notes by Mariangela Mosca Bonsignore.

“ET Classici” series.

Languages: English and Italian

Edition: 2016