0:00:05 > 0:00:08'Just imagine you've been marooned on a deserted island
0:00:08 > 0:00:11'for 12 years...'
0:00:11 > 0:00:13when, amazingly,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17the men who conspired to put you here,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19are shipwrecked in a storm
0:00:19 > 0:00:22and are washed up, defenceless, onto the same shore.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24They're at your mercy.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26So what are you going to do?
0:00:26 > 0:00:32'This is a story of anger and the search for revenge,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37'of paternal love and sacrifice, all unfolding in a magical world.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42'Along the way, we'll see a creature that's barely human,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46'an airy spirit conjured from the elements,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49'a storm which stops as mysteriously as it began.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54'It sounds like a work of science fiction,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57'yet it comes from the imagination of a man writing 400 years ago.'
0:00:59 > 0:01:03It's the last complete play by William Shakespeare.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05It's The Tempest.
0:01:17 > 0:01:23'I directed The Tempest with Ralph Fiennes in the leading role in 2011.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27'It was a play I'd always wanted to do.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29'Alas, nothing of our work was filmed,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32'but what still intrigues me about this play
0:01:32 > 0:01:35'is what it tells us about Shakespeare himself.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38'It's more ambitious than anything he'd written before,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40'more radical in the ideas it explores
0:01:40 > 0:01:44'and more imaginative in the kind of staging it demands.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48'And yet, he was in his latter years when he set himself this challenge.'
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Astonishingly, what he decides to do
0:01:56 > 0:02:00at the end of his writing lifetime is an experiment.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05This is an experimental play that requires people to fly,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08spirits to emerge and shape-shift,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11apparitions, disappearing acts.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13It's all experiment.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16'This was his last complete play.
0:02:16 > 0:02:22'I think it's also one of his most personal, almost autobiographical.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25'It's even possible that Shakespeare, who was also an actor,
0:02:25 > 0:02:30'could have played the leading role himself.'
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Shakespeare would have been 50 at the point of this play.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Prospero's 50.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Did he play Prospero? Why not?
0:02:43 > 0:02:49I mean, is it not only his last play, but his last performance?
0:02:53 > 0:02:56'Different film versions of the play go back to the very earliest
0:02:56 > 0:02:59'attempt in 1911, but at its core,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03'The Tempest is the story of one man and a choice he must make.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06'The man is Prospero, Duke of Milan,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09'who's been betrayed by his brother,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12'cast away on a boat with his tiny daughter, Miranda.'
0:03:14 > 0:03:15That's extraordinary!
0:03:15 > 0:03:19'Left to their fate, they survive,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23'marooned on a deserted island for 12 years.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26'Prospero is no ordinary man.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31'He's a Magus, a magician who commands spirits and the elements.'
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Special effects!
0:03:34 > 0:03:37'Through this magic, his art,
0:03:37 > 0:03:39'he has discovered that his treacherous brother
0:03:39 > 0:03:43'and co-conspirators will pass his island on their ship.'
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Here are the villains.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51'He conjures up a tempest that hurls his enemies onto his shore.
0:03:51 > 0:03:52'But what will he do with them?
0:03:52 > 0:03:59'What will happen when his past and present lives collide?
0:03:59 > 0:04:02'This play will ask huge questions.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06'How do we become the people we are?
0:04:06 > 0:04:08'What does it mean to be human?
0:04:08 > 0:04:12'And what happens when, for the first time, we fall in love?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16'While the play tackles all of these issues,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21'a central theme is the relationship between a father and his daughter,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24'alone together for 12 years.'
0:04:26 > 0:04:29I think the relationship between Prospero and Miranda
0:04:29 > 0:04:32is one of the great interests and sort of puzzles of the play,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34because, really, the action kind of rests on it.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38I have done nothing
0:04:38 > 0:04:40But in care of thee.
0:04:40 > 0:04:41'There's obviously a lot of love there.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43'It's a very, very intimate relationship,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45'but also, from Prospero's side,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47'there's a real sense of controlling...'
0:04:47 > 0:04:50of her and controlling of her personality
0:04:50 > 0:04:53and wanting her to do certain things and not do other things.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55And so, immediately, there's a kind of tension there.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Lend thy hand,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59And pluck my magic garment from me.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02'Since the age of three,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06'her father has been the only person in her life.'
0:05:06 > 0:05:09'This play is a paternal fantasy
0:05:09 > 0:05:11'about the daughter that I could raise...'
0:05:11 > 0:05:13if I had her to myself,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15if I didn't have mothers coddling her
0:05:15 > 0:05:18and I didn't have other people getting in the way
0:05:18 > 0:05:22of the person that she could become if I were to shape her.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Lie there,
0:05:25 > 0:05:26My art.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29'Controlling he frequently is,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32'but Prospero's clearly devoted to his daughter.'
0:05:32 > 0:05:37He says, kind of, "You saved my life because YOU were in the boat,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42"then I felt there was something worth living for."
0:05:42 > 0:05:46It's very, very potent between the two of them.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49'It's an arresting premise,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53'a father and a daughter surviving a nightmare journey,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58'drifting in an open boat before finally reaching an island.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02'Shakespeare has invented a story of people...'
0:06:02 > 0:06:06surviving, marooned on a bare island.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08'They don't really know where they are.'
0:06:10 > 0:06:13This is 150 years ahead of Robinson Crusoe.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17'So where did Shakespeare get this idea from?
0:06:18 > 0:06:21'We know he had access to the London bookstalls
0:06:21 > 0:06:23'and we know that, like screenwriters today,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27'Shakespeare re-worked and embellished existing plots.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33'But uniquely, for this play, there was no existing fictional story.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37'It's possible that Shakespeare was influenced by a real event.'
0:06:39 > 0:06:45"Chapter VI. A true repertory of the wracke
0:06:45 > 0:06:48"and redemption of Sir Thomas Gates Knight,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52"upon and from the Ilands of the Bermudas."
0:06:52 > 0:06:54'It's quite clear...'
0:06:54 > 0:06:56that one of the most important events that Shakespeare
0:06:56 > 0:06:59almost certainly must be drawing on
0:06:59 > 0:07:04is the expedition of a ship called the Sea Venture
0:07:04 > 0:07:08that sets out for the Americas in the summer of 1609.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Around 500 people are on this boat, and it disappears.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17"I. A most dreadful Tempest."
0:07:17 > 0:07:21We know it's actually stranded in Bermuda,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24but from the contemporary perspective, this is a disaster.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29"So huge a sea broke upon the poope and quarter upon us
0:07:29 > 0:07:33"as it covered our ship from stern to stem
0:07:33 > 0:07:37"as it rushed and carried the Helm-man from the helme
0:07:37 > 0:07:39"and wrested the whipstaff out of his hand
0:07:39 > 0:07:41"and all us about him on our faces."
0:07:41 > 0:07:47There are many accounts - William Strachey is the famous account
0:07:47 > 0:07:49that Shakespeare may have had access to -
0:07:49 > 0:07:52but there are any number of other little pamphlets that report
0:07:52 > 0:07:55this drastic and difficult expedition.
0:07:55 > 0:08:02"Sea breakes in. Leak cannot be found which cannot but be found.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07"The waters still increasing, we were now sinking."
0:08:07 > 0:08:11These sorts of episodes are absolutely embraced
0:08:11 > 0:08:14by the reading public in early 17th-century England.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17This sort of voyage of discovery,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21these abilities to imagine yourself a little person
0:08:21 > 0:08:24perhaps in Southwark imagining themselves
0:08:24 > 0:08:26in the Isle of Bermudas or the Indies or in the Americas.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31"Utter darkness. Their labour for life
0:08:31 > 0:08:34"three dayes and foure nights."
0:08:34 > 0:08:37'And, just as with Shakespeare's story,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40'all the shipwrecked passengers survived.'
0:08:40 > 0:08:47So then, a year later, or almost a year later, in May 1610,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50the wrecked people have managed to create their own boat
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and they arrive in Jamestown.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57It seems to me that it's just too much of a historical coincidence
0:08:57 > 0:09:02that these same themes of individuals being shipwrecked
0:09:02 > 0:09:04on an island in the middle of nowhere,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07who somehow eventually are recovered and go on their way...
0:09:07 > 0:09:11it's too much of a coincidence not to have been used by Shakespeare.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17'So Shakespeare may have been influenced by that real event,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21'but how was he going to get his Magus
0:09:21 > 0:09:23'to create a shipwreck on stage?
0:09:26 > 0:09:29'Shakespeare needed a way of manipulating
0:09:29 > 0:09:32'what his audience were seeing and hearing.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36'Finding new ways of playing with light and illusion.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42'But his theatre, the Globe, was open to the sky - hardly ideal.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'Flying spirits would need be suspended from a ceiling,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47'disappearing acts needed darkness.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54'He needed a theatre with a roof where they could act by candlelight.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57'At the Globe today, they still recognise that problem.'
0:09:59 > 0:10:04Clearly, a lot of the atmosphere of this magic world of the play
0:10:04 > 0:10:09would have been so much more potent in an interior candlelit space
0:10:09 > 0:10:13than in an open-air space where you would see it in the afternoon.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Candlelight is a massive game changer.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19It makes light sources unspeakably powerful.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22If you walk onto the Globe stage with a lantern, you look like
0:10:22 > 0:10:25an idiot, cos it's meaningless. If you come into a darkened room
0:10:25 > 0:10:28with a lantern, and that's the only light source in the room,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31you're a very powerful presence.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33'So Shakespeare and his company
0:10:33 > 0:10:38'took over an existing indoor theatre, the Blackfriars.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41'No-one knows exactly what it looked like.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44'But across the Atlantic, a reconstruction has been created.'
0:10:48 > 0:10:52'In Staunton, Virginia, they're rehearsing
0:10:52 > 0:10:55'the opening scene of The Tempest.
0:10:55 > 0:10:56'The shipwreck.'
0:10:56 > 0:10:59CRASHING AND RATTLING
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Boatswain!
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Here, master. What cheer?
0:11:03 > 0:11:04Good. Speak to the mariners.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, my hearts! Yare!
0:11:08 > 0:11:10'This is a daytime rehearsal with the house lights on,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14'but it reveals another demand of the play...
0:11:14 > 0:11:16'dramatic sound effects.'
0:11:16 > 0:11:19RATTLING
0:11:19 > 0:11:21RUSTLING
0:11:21 > 0:11:25The beginning of The Tempest has this huge storm.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28So trying to figure out how Shakespeare might have staged it
0:11:28 > 0:11:31when he didn't have smoke machines,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35he didn't have the special effects that we have in the 21st century,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39so trying to figure out how we can aurally create
0:11:39 > 0:11:44the idea of a big huge storm is what we were after.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48We've got all of these acoustic instruments
0:11:48 > 0:11:52that could have been something like what Shakespeare had,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54because he had the same issue that we did.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57How do you get a huge storm and a shipwreck
0:11:57 > 0:12:00in the Blackfriars playhouse?
0:12:00 > 0:12:03SHOUTING AND COMMOTION
0:12:03 > 0:12:06'It's like the beginning of a film.'
0:12:06 > 0:12:09The Tempest as a play takes you by the throat immediately.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13It opens in the middle of this storm, we're on a ship.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of King? To cabin!
0:12:17 > 0:12:20'The ship is going down, there are sailors running across the stage,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22'the guests on the ship running the other way.'
0:12:22 > 0:12:24No-one knows what's going on.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29'At this stage, not even the audience knows what's really going on,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32'because, in fact, nothing is what it seems.'
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Take in the topsail!
0:12:36 > 0:12:40'These elements of high drama and magic
0:12:40 > 0:12:43'have inspired many different film versions,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47'but at the centre of every Tempest is this strange Magus character,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50'the betrayed duke, Prospero.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53'He's created the storm, he's stage-managing all the action.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57'No-one on the ship will be harmed, but they, of course, don't know that
0:12:57 > 0:13:00'and they're terrified.'
0:13:00 > 0:13:04We are in the company of a great magician, conjuror, alchemist
0:13:04 > 0:13:06who can control the elements
0:13:06 > 0:13:10and indeed, almost control people's destinies.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Somebody who seems to be playing at God.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18Therefore, he's somebody to be feared.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22'Do we trust Prospero? I don't know.'
0:13:22 > 0:13:25He's conjured up this storm from nothing. He's made it go away again.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29He's actually brought the ship safely into harbour
0:13:29 > 0:13:31and he's deposited its passengers very carefully
0:13:31 > 0:13:34in different parts of the island, and it's clear
0:13:34 > 0:13:35that Prospero is setting this up
0:13:35 > 0:13:37because he wants to control this plot.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41He's going to bring them together when he wants them to be together.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45'And we don't really know what is going to result from that.'
0:13:46 > 0:13:49'He's brought his enemies to the same island
0:13:49 > 0:13:53'on which he struggled ashore. They are in his power.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58'The play hinges on a moral question. What will he decide to do with them?'
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Prospero begins The Tempest as somebody who is...metaphorically,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07as well as literally, on an island. He's stuck with himself,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and all that he's had to say to himself for years is,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14"I was treated badly. I was treated badly."
0:14:14 > 0:14:18'Prospero is very human because he wants'
0:14:18 > 0:14:23to take revenge and he wants it to be extreme.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26He really wants to hurt the people who have hurt him.
0:14:27 > 0:14:35Prospero is a profoundly angry, bitter, enraged person,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40enraged, with absolute reason,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43absolutely rightfully enraged.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48'But definitely with a burning rage inside of his belly.'
0:14:49 > 0:14:53'Prospero doesn't ever spell out the intentions he has.'
0:14:53 > 0:14:56One of the main questions of this play is,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01will Prospero be capable of forgiveness?
0:15:08 > 0:15:14If by your art, my dearest father, you would put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
0:15:14 > 0:15:22'Having depicted the angry Magus, the play then reveals Prospero, the reassuring father.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26'He tells his daughter for the first time how they became castaways.'
0:15:26 > 0:15:29How came we ashore?
0:15:29 > 0:15:33By providence divine. Some food we had, some fresh water,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37a noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, out of his charity,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40being then appointed master of this design, did give us.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43From the first, Prospero's words to Miranda
0:15:43 > 0:15:44are some of the tenderest in the play.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49'He talks about his daughter as "dear", he tells her that she saved his life.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53'He's trying to instruct her about the world she's about to enter that she has no experience in.'
0:15:53 > 0:15:56And he's worried about it. She's 15, and he's worried about it.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01Know thus far forth, by accident most strange,
0:16:01 > 0:16:07bountiful fortune now, my dear lady, hath my enemies brought to this shore.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11He is my teacher. I have very few memories before this place.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14It's just the given, it's the given circumstances.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19'I know that my father talks to spirits and that he runs this storm and I know he's probably'
0:16:19 > 0:16:22got a purpose for these things he's doing,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26but I feel that it's just a given that I understand that he's got this magic
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and he's got this ability to talk to the spirits.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36'Prospero and Miranda are not completely alone.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42'Their fellow inhabitant is among Shakespeare's strangest characters.
0:16:42 > 0:16:50'Caliban, a creature possibly inspired by the talk in Shakespeare's local tavern.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53'The Globe Theatre was by the river.'
0:16:54 > 0:17:00Sailors returning from distant parts would of course exaggerate
0:17:00 > 0:17:03about the weird and wonderful creatures that they had seen.
0:17:03 > 0:17:10But strange creatures - half man, half animal - were thought to exist,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13and, indeed, drawings were made of them
0:17:13 > 0:17:16and those drawings were printed.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20'Caliban has always been a controversial character.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23'His existence provokes uncomfortable questions.'
0:17:25 > 0:17:28I want to try something. Really attack...
0:17:31 > 0:17:34'The Tempest is part of the RSC's new season.
0:17:34 > 0:17:40'In rehearsal, they're exploring the first time Caliban is seen with Prospero.'
0:17:40 > 0:17:42OK, let's go from waking Emily up.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47'Something has happened that has resulted in Prospero enslaving Caliban.'
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Slave! Caliban!
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Thou earth, thou...
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Speak!
0:17:57 > 0:18:00Caliban is a previous inhabitant of the island.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03He actually was here before Prospero.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05I think that's significant to their relationship.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08His mother, Sycorax, was a witch
0:18:08 > 0:18:11and she has died, leaving Caliban alone on the island.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16'Prospero has arrived on the island, and Prospero and Caliban initially were friends,'
0:18:16 > 0:18:20then a terrible event has taken place, a cataclysmic event.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Poisonous slave.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25'The relationship is now full of anger.'
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Come forth!
0:18:27 > 0:18:33As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather
0:18:33 > 0:18:39from unwholesome fen, drop on you both!
0:18:39 > 0:18:45A south-west blow on ye and blister you all o'er.
0:18:45 > 0:18:51'Each new production has to decide what Prospero feels about Caliban.'
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Tonight thou shalt have cramps.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57'I talked to the unusually youthful Prospero, Jonathan Slinger.'
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Your Prospero, does he think of Caliban as his servant,
0:19:03 > 0:19:08as his slave? Does he think of him as an animal?
0:19:08 > 0:19:10I think they have been on a real journey,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14their relationship has been on an incredible journey,
0:19:14 > 0:19:20which is articulated beautifully actually by Caliban himself,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24who talks about Prospero arriving and treating him very well,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26very nicely, giving him food.
0:19:26 > 0:19:32When thou cam'st first, thou strok'st me and made much of me,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36would give me water with berries in't.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40And then I loved thee.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44'He then betrayed me horribly'
0:19:44 > 0:19:48by trying to rape my daughter.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52And now he is very much my slave.
0:19:52 > 0:19:58I have used thee, filth as thou art,
0:19:58 > 0:20:03with humane care and lodged thee in my own cell
0:20:03 > 0:20:08till thou did seek to violate the honour of my child!
0:20:08 > 0:20:11I don't think of Caliban as an animal. He is
0:20:11 > 0:20:16a being that I have had enormous love and respect for in the past,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20but no longer, and I am punishing him terribly.
0:20:23 > 0:20:29'Quite where our sympathies should lie is complicated by the idea of whose island is it anyway?'
0:20:30 > 0:20:36Certainly, Caliban is enslaved against his will.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41And certainly, Prospero has come to an island where he himself
0:20:41 > 0:20:45is not native born and is taking it over and becoming its ruler.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48So the structure is a colonial structure.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55'In our century, it's seems obvious to link Caliban and colonialism,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57'but is that what Shakespeare had in mind?
0:20:57 > 0:21:01'The play is about power, freedom and slavery,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04'but that's not the same as empire.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08'It would help to get a clearer idea of where Shakespeare intended his island to be.'
0:21:10 > 0:21:14So this, for late 16th, early 17th century Englishman,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16is what world looks like.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19And what you can see is obviously... this looks quite modern.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24There you can see Britain, you can see the Mediterranean very clearly here.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27So even by this time, by the very early 17th century,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31you have quite a comprehensive world picture.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Imagery like this would be known or would it be very specialist?
0:21:34 > 0:21:37No, it would have been known.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39They would have been able to situate themselves within this world.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44It has to be said, doesn't it, that the bulk of the references
0:21:44 > 0:21:47in the play are to this Mediterranean world?
0:21:47 > 0:21:52I mean, Caliban was the son of Sycorax, the witch of Algiers,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56and there isn't a suggestion in the play that we're dealing with
0:21:56 > 0:21:59what came to be known as the New World?
0:21:59 > 0:22:03No, because look at this, look at this map. If you look at North America and South America,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07this is quite approximate. This is a sort of weird,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09triangulated wedge of cheese for South America.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13North America pushed far too far to the west.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Here it gets hazy, so those references to the New World
0:22:17 > 0:22:22are about the fact that this new West world is something coming into shape.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Certainly for the English. OK, Columbus discovers it in 1492,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29but the English have been nowhere in that process.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Only from the turn of the 17th century when they settle in Virginia,
0:22:33 > 0:22:38what the English audience knows is this Mediterranean world which is what the play's describing.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42'But in trying to give the play more contemporary relevance,
0:22:42 > 0:22:49'productions often make the legacy of European colonialism the central theme of this 17th-century play.'
0:22:49 > 0:22:54The last 20 or 30 years, there's been a post-colonialism take on the play,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56to say, "This is all about colonisation,"
0:22:56 > 0:23:02so everybody has therefore magnified those New World, American dimensions.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06Indeed, the problem with the colonial take
0:23:06 > 0:23:11is that of course Prospero becomes just another white colonialist
0:23:11 > 0:23:15who has taken over somebody's country, and that isn't his story.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21I mean, he's been cast adrift in a boat, and this island is his survival.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24And he discovers Caliban, and Caliban is not native to that island.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Absolutely. I think that the more interesting aspect of the play is,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31nobody is native to the island.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33The island has never been first discovered,
0:23:33 > 0:23:35there's always been somebody there before,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37because before Caliban, there was Sycorax.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48We know from the text that this island
0:23:48 > 0:23:52has green pasture, brown firs,
0:23:52 > 0:23:57trees, a marsh and yellow sands.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02But is it bare? Is it bleak? Is it beautiful?
0:24:02 > 0:24:06'I think Shakespeare leaves this to our imagination,
0:24:06 > 0:24:12'so we can create our own magical world, and magical it must be.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17'Prospero has a spirit servant, Ariel.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21'Using his magic art, he released Ariel from a tree,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24'in which he'd been imprisoned by Caliban's mother, a witch.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27'Ariel belongs to the elements.'
0:24:30 > 0:24:34There's Caliban, who represents something very close to the earth,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36something visceral and physical.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Then there's Ariel, who represents all the opposite things of that,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44the spirit, something sacred and something magical,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47something other-worldly.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51And human beings are pulled between those poles.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56'The relationship between Prospero and his spirit is complex,
0:24:56 > 0:25:03'as Prospero has promised him freedom, but only after Ariel has helped him fulfil his plan.'
0:25:04 > 0:25:06My liberty!
0:25:06 > 0:25:11Ariel, throughout the play, from the first moment we see him, really,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13is saying to Prospero,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16"When am I going to be free? When are you going to let me go?
0:25:16 > 0:25:21"You promised my that if I sorted out this storm, you would free me."
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Thou didst promise to bate me a full year.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28Ariel is definitely another slave.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30'Caliban's one, and Ariel's another.'
0:25:30 > 0:25:33I thank thee, master.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36But I suppose there is this sort of intimacy and love there
0:25:36 > 0:25:39for the person who is his captor.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45'There's something wonderfully mischievous and accessible about Ariel.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49'He so wants to be praised'
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and so overjoyed when he IS complimented.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02'The Magus is about to call on Ariel for a very different part of his shipwreck plan.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07'Prospero has brought his enemies ashore
0:26:07 > 0:26:09'not only to settle an old score,
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'but to secure a new future for his daughter.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19'One of the survivors is Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples.
0:26:19 > 0:26:25'Using an enchanted song, Ariel must deliver this young man into the presence of Miranda.'
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Where should this music be?
0:26:28 > 0:26:31I' the air or the earth?
0:26:32 > 0:26:35'It's the first young man she's ever seen.'
0:26:35 > 0:26:38What is it, a spirit?
0:26:38 > 0:26:41No, wench, this gallant that thou see'st was in the wreck.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Sir, it carries a brave form.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48He can put Ferdinand and Miranda together, but he can't make them fall in love.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51That's going to happen or it's not gonna happen.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56I might call him a thing divine.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59For nothing natural I ever saw so noble.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02We call it love at first sight. But it's not that deep love,
0:27:02 > 0:27:07it's a tickle, it's, um... it's sexual intrigue,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10it's a sexual interest that has never existed, I believe, in her body.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13O you wonder, if you be maid or no?
0:27:13 > 0:27:18- No wonder, sir, but certainly a maid.- My language! Heavens!
0:27:18 > 0:27:21'But then suddenly Prospero interrupts.'
0:27:21 > 0:27:25A word, good sir. I fear you've done yourself some wrong. A word.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Why speaks my father so ungently?
0:27:27 > 0:27:29..Virgin and your affection not gone forth.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32'Prospero has his reservations about Ferdinand...'
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Soft, sir, one word more.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39'..since, in the past, the prince has been a bit of a playboy.'
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Young Ferdinand has been round the block with young ladies various,
0:27:43 > 0:27:49and Prospero is anxious
0:27:49 > 0:27:53that the relationship between him and his daughter
0:27:53 > 0:27:56should be not just a thing of physical attraction.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59What he wants is a meeting of minds.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02One word more, I charge thee that thou attend me!
0:28:02 > 0:28:04Thou didst here usurp the name thou ows't not.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06And has put thy self upon this island as a spy.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12- To win it, from me, the Lord on't. - No, as I am a man.- There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Follow me. Speak not you for him. Come!
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Prospero is obviously struggling with himself, so...
0:28:17 > 0:28:19At the same time he's trying to control the encounter,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21he wants it to go a certain way,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23but doesn't quite want it to happen just yet,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25or maybe changes his mind about what he wants to happen.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28And all of these things Shakespeare is dramatising.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36'Prospero is worried that if the teenage girl is too easily won, Ferdinand won't value her.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40'But he can come across as the archetypal competitive male.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45'That dynamic changes if Prospero is played by a woman.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49'In a new film, Helen Mirren plays the part.'
0:28:50 > 0:28:53This gallant which thou see'st was in the wreck.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55I might call him a thing divine.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58For nothing natural I ever saw so noble.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03'I felt that it was a very strong addition.'
0:29:03 > 0:29:04The play doesn't change,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08but the perception in the audience's mind changes,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11watching a woman doing, saying these things.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13We are both in either's powers.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17But this swift business, I must uneasy make,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20lest too light winning make the prize light.
0:29:20 > 0:29:26It's a fantastically different reaction that this Prospero has,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28'because there's no testosterone.'
0:29:28 > 0:29:31When a young man comes calling for the daughter of Prospero,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33there's a lot of competition going on.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39Here, with Prospera, it's much more of a tigress protecting her cub.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42She knows exactly what can happen
0:29:42 > 0:29:45with this young man if he's not true.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47Thou thinkst there is no more such shapes as he
0:29:47 > 0:29:50having seen but him and Caliban.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Foolish child!
0:29:52 > 0:29:55To the most of men, this is a Caliban, and they to him are angels.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57My affections are then most humble.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59I have no ambitions to see a goodlier man.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02'It's still a parent-child relationship,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05'so that is the constant, but, yes,'
0:30:05 > 0:30:08it lost that slightly... I thought to me
0:30:08 > 0:30:14slightly patriarchal, controlling thing that I always felt
0:30:14 > 0:30:16when it's played by a man.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22'Whenever you see a work by Shakespeare,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26'it's natural to wonder how much of it comes from his life experience.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30'But The Tempest provokes more of these speculations
0:30:30 > 0:30:32'than any other of his plays.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36'It's April the 23rd,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40'and Shakespeare's birthday is being celebrated in Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44'Now he's world famous, but even during his lifetime,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48'he was known in his home town as a successful playwright,
0:30:48 > 0:30:54'with his own coat-of-arms, a family and a reputation to protect.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58'It's not impossible that Prospero's fears were rather close to his own.'
0:30:59 > 0:31:03All writers draw on their experience as they write plays.
0:31:03 > 0:31:08And we know that, at the time Shakespeare is writing The Tempest,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12he's a little bit worried about one of his daughters, Judith,
0:31:12 > 0:31:17who is involved with a man who may not be quite reliable.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23And, at some level, those paternal anxieties are part of the play.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27'The man his daughter was intent on marrying
0:31:27 > 0:31:30'had made another woman pregnant.'
0:31:30 > 0:31:35Inevitably, things that happen in your life inform your work.
0:31:35 > 0:31:42So there is that concern with actually testing a husband
0:31:42 > 0:31:46to check that they are suitable, before a daughter marries them,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49which, of course, is played out in The Tempest.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58'We can't be sure of this, of course, but Shakespeare, the experimental dramatist,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02'was certainly determined to explore bold, fundamental ideas.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07'Shakespeare uses his magical island
0:32:07 > 0:32:11'to investigate the truth about human nature.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15'Are we bestial or benign?
0:32:15 > 0:32:19'On another side of the island, his treacherous brother
0:32:19 > 0:32:23'and the co-conspirators are struggling to orientate themselves.'
0:32:23 > 0:32:26You have cause, so have we all...
0:32:26 > 0:32:29'But amongst them is the ageing Gonzalo.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33'No traitor he, but a courtier always loyal to Prospero
0:32:33 > 0:32:38'and in this virgin world, he dreams of his perfect society.'
0:32:38 > 0:32:40..Have just our theme of woe.
0:32:40 > 0:32:46All things in common nature should produce without sweat or endeavour.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Treason, felony, sword, pike, knife, gun
0:32:50 > 0:32:53or need of any engine would I not have!
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Anticipating Karl Marx,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01he says that, in future, everything should be held in common.
0:33:01 > 0:33:07There should be no usury - making of money out of lending money.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10No weapons, no wars.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15But nature should bring forth of it own kind, all foison,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19all abundance to feed my innocent people.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24'Everything should be produced by nature. Paradise.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30'It's a radically egalitarian vision.'
0:33:33 > 0:33:36That moment in the play where Gonzalo comes onto the stage
0:33:36 > 0:33:41and says, "Well, if I were running this place, this deserted island,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43"I might organise things totally differently.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45"I might actually have a commonwealth
0:33:45 > 0:33:48"where everyone has equal political rights.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50"I might get rid of kings altogether."
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Heretical thought in this time.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54And one of the interesting things is that,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57within 40 years of this play being written,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00all of these debates will erupt in the English Civil Wars.
0:34:00 > 0:34:01They will actually become real.
0:34:03 > 0:34:04Wondrous heavy.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08'Yet hopes of Gonzalo's utopia are quickly dashed.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10'No sooner has he described it
0:34:10 > 0:34:15'than Shakespeare crushingly presents the obstacles there would be in achieving it.'
0:34:16 > 0:34:20As sleep overtakes the other survivors,
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Prospero's usurping brother, Antonio,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27tries to persuade his crony to commit murder,
0:34:27 > 0:34:32to gain for both of them more wealth and more power.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Remember, you did supplant your brother, Prospero.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39True. And look how well my garments sit upon me.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Much feater than before.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46'Even in a new land, if you create an ideal society,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49'the worser human instincts will always emerge.'
0:34:52 > 0:34:56I think it's a tabula rasa, the island. It's a clean slate.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58There's no connection to civilisation,
0:34:58 > 0:35:04so you have to see how, nature or nurture,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07how embedded is it in humanity?
0:35:07 > 0:35:09'You have this court come to the island.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12'They have no castles, they have nothing.'
0:35:12 > 0:35:14And yet all what is nature in them,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18which is the deceit, starts up again.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Their character is embedded in them.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24And you watch this incredible, duplicitous nature
0:35:24 > 0:35:27come out in the conspiracy.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31'Despite our flawed nature,
0:35:31 > 0:35:35'we humans keep longing for a mythical paradise.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39'This is the Eden Project, built to cherish a natural world
0:35:39 > 0:35:43'that, given the creatures we are, we're in danger of losing.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46'But is this what Shakespeare was saying?'
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Shakespeare was a very, very clever writer.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55Remember, all the plays at the time were submitted to the censor
0:35:55 > 0:35:58to be read before they could be staged.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01Most of Shakespeare's contemporaries at one time or another
0:36:01 > 0:36:05ended up getting into big political trouble, often ending up in prison.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10However, he didn't shy away from the big, difficult political questions,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13questions about the nature of good government,
0:36:13 > 0:36:17questions about monarchy versus republicanism,
0:36:17 > 0:36:22questions of what might you do to establish a colony or an empire.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24These were hot topics at the time,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26and a play like The Tempest goes straight into them.
0:36:30 > 0:36:31'As the play continues,
0:36:31 > 0:36:36'Shakespeare delves even deeper into the darker side of human nature.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40'Caliban comes across two surviving drunken shipmates,
0:36:40 > 0:36:42'a jester and a butler,
0:36:42 > 0:36:46'and together, they strike a deadly deal.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50'Caliban, desperate for his freedom, wants Prospero dead.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54'He tells them how, in detail, they must kill the Magus.'
0:36:54 > 0:36:58There, thou mayst brain her
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Or with a log batter her skull
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Or paunch her with a stake
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Or cut her weasand with thy knife.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06'If they will kill Prospero,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11'then the butler will be king of the island, Miranda his concubine.'
0:37:11 > 0:37:18She will become thy bed, I warrant, and bring thee forth brave brood.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22Monster, I will kill this witch.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24Pleasure!
0:37:24 > 0:37:25'The deal is done.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29'Prospero is now a dead man walking.'
0:37:29 > 0:37:30# ..Thought is free... #
0:37:33 > 0:37:36'So can anyone be trusted with power?
0:37:37 > 0:37:39'This question underpins the play.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42'It even applies to Prospero himself.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47'Prospero's power is rather different.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51'His magic comes from his knowledge, his book,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54'an idea familiar to a 17th-century audience.'
0:37:56 > 0:38:00In the early modern period, magic is a practice.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Not anyone can be a wise man, a Magus.
0:38:03 > 0:38:04You have to work at it.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07You have to study the books and the records,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11you have to explore scientifically, by experimentation,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15the different permutations of chemicals, the types of dye,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17the different movements of the stars.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21If it's handled in the wrong way, it can become ungodly.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24And one of the keen things I think we see in the play
0:38:24 > 0:38:28is that delicate balance between good and bad magic.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32'This tension recurs throughout The Tempest.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37'How should the power of knowledge or science be used?
0:38:37 > 0:38:41'It's a timeless and universal question, of course,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44'and has prompted a very different version of Shakespeare's story.'
0:38:47 > 0:38:50'These magnificent scenes, in striking Eastman Color,
0:38:50 > 0:38:52'stagger the imagination.'
0:38:52 > 0:38:56But it is, look! That is striking Eastman Color.
0:38:56 > 0:38:57'Forbidden Planet
0:38:57 > 0:39:02'is film critic Mark Kermode's favourite Shakespeare adaptation.'
0:39:02 > 0:39:05'Imagine yourself as one of the crew of this faster-than-light
0:39:05 > 0:39:08'spaceship of the future.'
0:39:08 > 0:39:12'In this sci-fi take on the play, the island is a planet in outer space.'
0:39:13 > 0:39:17'When you reach the Forbidden Planet, you will meet Dr Morbius...'
0:39:17 > 0:39:20'The Prospero is a scientist.'
0:39:20 > 0:39:22'The doctor is sole owner of this fabulous world.'
0:39:22 > 0:39:25'There is a Miranda and a Ferdinand.'
0:39:25 > 0:39:27Didn't bring my bathing suit.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29What's a bathing suit?
0:39:29 > 0:39:31Oh-oh!
0:39:31 > 0:39:32'There's a mysterious power.'
0:39:32 > 0:39:38'..conceal a strange and evil force...unknown, irresistible.'
0:39:39 > 0:39:42'But the essential question remains the same -
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'who can be entrusted with special power?'
0:39:48 > 0:39:51The idea of it is that this spaceship arrives on a planet
0:39:51 > 0:39:56which is being ruled by this vaguely sinister
0:39:56 > 0:39:58but generally benevolent scientist,
0:39:58 > 0:40:03and somehow Morbius has tapped into this power that he didn't create -
0:40:03 > 0:40:06it was put there by a previous civilisation -
0:40:06 > 0:40:07he doesn't understand it
0:40:07 > 0:40:12and yet, in his dream states, in his unconscious rages,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15he lets loose this monstrous force.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19But does he ever use it for anything benign?
0:40:19 > 0:40:23I mean, Prospero can be punitive and mean-spirited,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26and it looks like he is going to be vengeful,
0:40:26 > 0:40:32but he can also be generous with his magic, celebratory with his magic.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Yes, he is benign. Yes, he uses it to create
0:40:35 > 0:40:39this wonderful Eden-like world for his daughter to grow up in.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43'But, presumably, Paradise won't last.'
0:40:43 > 0:40:48'It's very cleverly played on the cusp of sinister and avuncular.'
0:40:48 > 0:40:50I think that's the reason the film works,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52because he is paternal he is benevolent, he is good,
0:40:52 > 0:40:54but he also is marshalling a power
0:40:54 > 0:40:58that enables the dark side to run rampant.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01I would say the climax of the story is him
0:41:01 > 0:41:06realising that what is monstrous out there in the world is actually him.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10And it is, in the end, a film about him facing up
0:41:10 > 0:41:14to the responsibility he has, having played with this power.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19'Back on Shakespeare's island,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22'the benign side of Prospero's nature seems to be winning,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25'at least as far as his daughter is concerned.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28'Ignoring the plot against his life,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32'he's concentrating intently on her courtship.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35Pray set it down and rest you.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37'Disobediently, she has gone to see Ferdinand -
0:41:37 > 0:41:40'secretly, she thinks, but in fact Prospero is watching.'
0:41:40 > 0:41:42My father's hard at study.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Pray now, rest yourself. He's safe these three hours.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Poor worm, thou art infected.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52There is just an element of bad taste about that, isn't there,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55'in hiding and overhearing and spying?'
0:41:55 > 0:42:00We come to realise that it's entirely protectively.
0:42:00 > 0:42:01Pray, give me that...
0:42:01 > 0:42:03'Love is a tricky thing, you know?'
0:42:03 > 0:42:04He has to be tested.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08If he says that he loves her, does he really love her?
0:42:08 > 0:42:12'Prospero absolutely has to know what kind of a guy he is.'
0:42:12 > 0:42:15- What is your name? - Miranda.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Oh, my father, I have broke your hest to say so.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22'Clearly, by now, Miranda is ready to assert herself.'
0:42:22 > 0:42:26If Miranda didn't have her moment of disobedience,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30I would feel much less enthusiastic about her.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34'In fact, she does want to hang out with Ferdinand,'
0:42:34 > 0:42:38even at the cost of disobeying her father's wish.
0:42:38 > 0:42:39Do you love me?
0:42:39 > 0:42:40Oh, heaven!
0:42:40 > 0:42:44'She has been brought up to be the obedient child,'
0:42:44 > 0:42:46but in fact there is fire in her.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53Fair encounter of two most rare affections.
0:42:53 > 0:42:59Prospero is starting to realise that Ferdinand does love his daughter.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01'He stays and he watches them.'
0:43:02 > 0:43:04I am your wife,
0:43:04 > 0:43:06if you will marry me.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10'And, actually, it's quite touching, in performance, to see him'
0:43:10 > 0:43:15watching his only daughter fall in love with another man.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20'Prospero is beginning to let go.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23'He's initiated their union and tested the prince
0:43:23 > 0:43:27'and now he's ready to approve their marriage.'
0:43:31 > 0:43:33'The Globe actors are trying out the scene.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37'Choosing to forget the would-be murderers,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41'Prospero gives himself to his daughter's joyous moment.'
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Then, as my gift
0:43:45 > 0:43:49and thine own acquisition worthily purchased,
0:43:49 > 0:43:50take my daughter.
0:43:52 > 0:43:53'But he can't quite let go.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55'He gives a stern warning to Ferdinand
0:43:55 > 0:44:00'not to even think about pre-marital sex with Miranda.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02'Ferdinand protests his innocence.'
0:44:02 > 0:44:06..The strongest suggestion our worser genius can,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09shall never melt mine honour into lust
0:44:09 > 0:44:13to take away the edge of that day's celebration.
0:44:13 > 0:44:14Fairly spoke.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Sit, then, and talk with her.
0:44:21 > 0:44:22She is thine own.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34'Prospero creates a magical display, a musical entertainment
0:44:34 > 0:44:39'calling on celestial goddesses to celebrate the betrothal.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45'It's a moment of exuberant joy, but it doesn't last.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49'Prospero suddenly stops his own show.'
0:44:51 > 0:44:54I find the marriage ceremony rather interesting,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57because it's actually...it's an aborted marriage ceremony.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01He brings them together for nuptial masque,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04and Prospero suddenly stops it,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07before it's finished, and says, "No, that's enough.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09"I don't want that any more."
0:45:10 > 0:45:13What's immediately on his mind is that he knows
0:45:13 > 0:45:17that Caliban has hatched a plot against him
0:45:17 > 0:45:21with Stephano and Trinculo to murder him.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26It's possible also that he stops it because
0:45:26 > 0:45:30it's too idealistic a view of life to present to his daughter.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Life's not going to be like that. Life isn't perfect.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39'But Shakespeare has another purpose.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44'The vanishing vision gives Prospero his most penetrating insight.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49'In one of the most poetic and, for me, consoling speeches
0:45:49 > 0:45:53'Shakespeare ever wrote, Prospero addresses the young couple
0:45:53 > 0:45:58'and talks about the fragility and transience of life itself.'
0:46:00 > 0:46:06You do look, my son, in a moved sort, as if you were dismayed.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Be cheerful, sir.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Our revels now are ended.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18These, our actors, as I foretold you,
0:46:18 > 0:46:19were all spirits
0:46:19 > 0:46:22and are melted into air,
0:46:22 > 0:46:25into thin air.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
0:46:29 > 0:46:33the cloud-capped towers,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36the gorgeous palaces,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40the solemn temples,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42the great globe itself,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46yea, all which it inherits shall dissolve...
0:46:46 > 0:46:49'Climactically, in that speech,'
0:46:49 > 0:46:54he uses the phrase "the great globe itself".
0:46:54 > 0:46:59Now, partly, of course, he means the world - the globe -
0:46:59 > 0:47:03that's what we refer to, the globe,
0:47:03 > 0:47:08but it's the name of his theatre, the great Globe itself.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13All of our shows - all of these things that we've created here -
0:47:13 > 0:47:17will disappear, they won't be around any more.
0:47:17 > 0:47:24In that way, I think, it's 100% certain that there is that autobiographical ingredient.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27And like this insubstantial pageant faded...
0:47:29 > 0:47:31..leave not a rack behind.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42And our little life...
0:47:43 > 0:47:46..is rounded with a sleep.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59'Everything in this life is like a series of visions.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02'It's like a series of scenes on stage, but in the end,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06'all we're doing is writing on the sand,
0:48:06 > 0:48:11'and the next tide comes in, and our beautiful message is washed away.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15'Understand life in those terms -'
0:48:15 > 0:48:19we are such stuff as dreams are made on.
0:48:19 > 0:48:25And our little life is rounded with a sleep.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32'So, something powerful is stirring in Prospero,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34'as he tries to come to terms
0:48:34 > 0:48:35'with those who've wronged him
0:48:35 > 0:48:39'and to decide what he should do with them.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42'Losing Miranda has radically changed him.'
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Whatever he wants to do to even the score,
0:48:48 > 0:48:49another generation will come,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54time passes, and time passing means, of course,
0:48:54 > 0:48:58that all the structures of imagination and fantasy -
0:48:58 > 0:49:01the cloud-capped towers - are all going to disappear.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04So how do you live from one moment to the next?
0:49:04 > 0:49:07That's what he's left with at that moment.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13There's a sort of wonderful sense of inevitability -
0:49:13 > 0:49:16I think, that's what it is -
0:49:16 > 0:49:21of the onward roll of life and death, life and death,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25life and death, and that we are all a part of that onward roll,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29and there's nothing we can do about it.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33'While he's turning over these thoughts and feelings,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37'Prospero's given another emotional jolt.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40'Ariel describes how he has brought the group of conspirators
0:49:40 > 0:49:45'across the island, where they wait, paralysed in fear and distress.
0:49:45 > 0:49:51'Now Prospero's non-human spirit talks about human compassion.'
0:49:51 > 0:49:54..That if you now beheld them...
0:49:55 > 0:49:58..your affections would become tender.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05Dost thou think so, spirit?
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Mine would, master...were I human.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15Prospero thinks, "My God!
0:50:15 > 0:50:22"If my spirit, Ariel, is so moved that he's saying
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"you have to forgive, then that's what I have to..."
0:50:25 > 0:50:27And everything changes.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33'Prospero decides he will now make the ultimate personal sacrifice -
0:50:33 > 0:50:36'he will surrender his magical powers.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39'There's a special poignancy in this surrender if you think,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44'as I do, that Shakespeare is, in part, writing about himself.
0:50:44 > 0:50:50'Shakespeare, like Prospero, has spent years conjuring with his imagination,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53'but after The Tempest, he will write no more plays.'
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Ye elves of hills,
0:50:57 > 0:51:01brooks, standing lakes and groves.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05'Calling up his spirits for one last time,
0:51:05 > 0:51:09'Prospero remembers his extraordinary accomplishments.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13'Shakespeare too has summoned countless visions
0:51:13 > 0:51:16'and brought the dead to life.'
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Graves at my command
0:51:19 > 0:51:22have waked their sleepers, oped and let 'em forth
0:51:22 > 0:51:25by my so potent art.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32But this rough magic...
0:51:33 > 0:51:36..I here abjure.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39I'll drown my book.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46'I think it's a devastating moment to let go of all of that.'
0:51:46 > 0:51:51Also, it's a kind of growing up moment for Prospero/Prospera,
0:51:51 > 0:51:53not just letting go of power,
0:51:53 > 0:51:59letting go of rage, letting go of anger, letting go of revenge.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03'It's kind of sad and melancholic, but it's full of understanding.'
0:52:11 > 0:52:15'The connection I see between Prospero and Shakespeare
0:52:15 > 0:52:18'makes this for me a particularly moving speech.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24'I do think that The Tempest is a farewell work,'
0:52:24 > 0:52:31but I didn't see that final departure as "I'm turning my back on you,
0:52:31 > 0:52:37"I'm abandoning you." No, "I'm leaving you with everything I have
0:52:37 > 0:52:43"to offer and I want it to stay with you, but I have to go.
0:52:43 > 0:52:51"Farewell, goodbye, I will never see you again" moment is something
0:52:51 > 0:52:56that we all understand and have a very strong emotional reaction to.
0:52:56 > 0:53:02With so many very great artists, the point comes, it seems,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05where they see their own work, their own utterance,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07as having resolved nothing
0:53:07 > 0:53:11and they empty their hands. The sense of the all-powerful,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16magical figure manipulating stories suddenly saying,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19"I can't do this any longer, I have to become human."
0:53:19 > 0:53:24I think that is something that is bound into the really great artists' work.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33'But before Prospero drowns his book, he must finally come
0:53:33 > 0:53:35'face to face with his enemies,
0:53:35 > 0:53:37'the moment he has dreamed of for years.'
0:53:37 > 0:53:39With a great final spell,
0:53:39 > 0:53:46Prospero brings all his enemies around him in a circle.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48What's he going to do?
0:53:50 > 0:53:54'He confronts each one of them with what they've done.'
0:53:54 > 0:53:58But for you, my brace of lords, were I so minded,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01I here could pluck His Highness' frown upon you
0:54:01 > 0:54:02and justify you traitors.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06At this time, I will tell no tales.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08The devil speaks in him!
0:54:08 > 0:54:10Oh, no!
0:54:11 > 0:54:14For you, most wicked sir,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17whom to call brother
0:54:17 > 0:54:19would even infect my mouth...
0:54:22 > 0:54:25..I forgive thy rankest fault.
0:54:28 > 0:54:29All of them...
0:54:29 > 0:54:31LAUGHTER
0:54:31 > 0:54:33..and require my dukedom of thee,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37which, perforce, I know thou must restore.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43'He has forgiven, but it's been hard.'
0:54:43 > 0:54:46He's not gracious at the end. He's really struggling,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49he is an ageing, angry, injured man
0:54:49 > 0:54:52who has lived with himself for a long time,
0:54:52 > 0:54:56and he knows what he has to do and grits his teeth and he does it.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01And that is, I think, one of most extraordinary things about the play,
0:55:01 > 0:55:06that the bitter, savage, isolated Magus figure at the beginning
0:55:06 > 0:55:09has become a recognisable human being - he has broken
0:55:09 > 0:55:13his magic wand and he's joined the human race again.
0:55:13 > 0:55:19'Finally, Prospero must be true to his spirit slave and give Ariel the freedom he yearns for.'
0:55:19 > 0:55:21That...
0:55:21 > 0:55:26That idea that we are all entitled to our freedom
0:55:26 > 0:55:32is very potent in the play, and Prospero keeps his word with Ariel.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Then to the elements be free.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43'I love the end, cos what he longs for is just to no longer be in a human form'
0:55:43 > 0:55:49and be a spirit - to be with the wind, the elements,
0:55:49 > 0:55:51to dissolve into that.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57'Prospero seems to pardon his would-be murder, Caliban, too.'
0:56:03 > 0:56:09It was a moment of mutual recognition, of acceptance,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13a full recognition of the other.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19'And so, at the end of his last play,
0:56:19 > 0:56:24'Shakespeare tells us the struggle to achieve forgiveness can be won.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27'Prospero has managed to forgive
0:56:27 > 0:56:30'and, in doing so, he has also freed himself.
0:56:30 > 0:56:35'Again, the parallels between Prospero and Shakespeare.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41'In an epilogue, Prospero, no longer empowered, makes a plea of great simplicity.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45'He steps forward and asks us, the audience, to set him free.'
0:56:46 > 0:56:50"Now my charms are all o'erthrown.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54"And what strength I have's mine own,
0:56:54 > 0:56:56"which is most faint.
0:56:56 > 0:57:02"As you from crimes would pardoned be,
0:57:02 > 0:57:07"let your indulgence set me free."
0:57:12 > 0:57:18'After writing The Tempest, Shakespeare left London for good and returned to Stratford.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23'Just two years later, he died. He was only 52.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33'I've worked in theatre for all of my adult life'
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and I can't begin to understand how he could have worked
0:57:36 > 0:57:41at such a pitch, at such a scale,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44in such a short span of time.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50For me, The Tempest will always be exceptional,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53not just because of its wisdom and humanity,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57but because, more than any of his other plays,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01it leads us to the essence of the man who wrote them.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06My feeling is that it's in The Tempest,
0:58:06 > 0:58:10through the character of Prospero,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13that we get closest to the workings
0:58:13 > 0:58:18of the mind of that genius, William Shakespeare.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd