A performance directed by Firenza Guidi in collaboration with the fourth-year classes of the Checchi Institute
Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda have been exiled for some twelve years to an island, after Prospero’s jealous brother, Antonio, aided by Alonso, King of Naples, deposed him and banished him along with his three-year-old daughter. Prospero and Miranda, left adrift on the high seas, land on an island inhabited only by Caliban, a deformed monster, and Ariel, an air spirit whom he has freed from the tree in which he had been trapped by the African witch Sycorax, exiled to the island years earlier. Living in a cave, Prospero and his daughter spend a long period of time there until Miranda grows into a young woman.
One day Prospero (this is where Shakespeare begins the narrative), having foreseen that his brother Antonio would be passing near the island by ship (returning from the wedding of Alonso’s daughter, Clarabella, to a Carthaginian king), unleashes a storm that causes the ship to be wrecked. Also on board the ship are the King of Naples, Alonso—a friend of Antonio’s and his partner in the conspiracy—and his son, Ferdinand. Thanks to his spells and with the help of Ariel, Prospero manages to separate all the shipwreck survivors so that Alonso and Ferdinand each believe they are the sole survivor.
From this point onwards, the play thus takes a divergent structure before converging once more in the finale: the individual journeys of the various shipwrecked survivors come together in the cave of Prospero, the central figure of the text, who, through his art, weaves the plots within which he compels the other characters to move. Thus Caliban stumbles upon Stephano and Trinculo, two drunken sailors whom he believes to be divine beings descended from the moon, and together they attempt to stage a rebellion against Prospero, which, however, fails. In another part of the island, Alonso mourns his son whom he believes to be dead, whilst Antonio attempts to kill him to seize his throne. Meanwhile, Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love at first sight. Their marriage will be the reason for Prospero’s reconciliation with his brother Antonio, once all the characters have gathered in his cave, and ultimately for his renunciation of his magic and supernatural power in a soliloquy in which many scholars have seen a biographical reference to Shakespeare, who, with this play, abandoned the theatre and had the opportunity to reconcile himself with himself and with society.
When
19 February 2011
6.00 pm, 9.00 pm, 11.00 pm
Where
“La Tinaia” Auditorium, Parco Corsini – Fucecchio
Admission
€5 (free for students of the Istituto Checchi)
