We are honoured to acknowledge the following corporations and FESTIVAL Stay connected! Follow us on individuals who have made sponsorship commitments in the 2010 season: THEATRE SEASON 2010 Season Partners JUNE 11 TO SEPTEMBER 12 stratfordshakespearefestival.com | 1.800.567.1600 Support for the 2010 season Support for the 2010 season Support for the 2010 season of the Festival Theatre of the Avon Theatre of the Studio Theatre OPENS JUNE 25 is generously provided by is generously provided by is generously provided by Laura Dinner and The Birmingham Des McAnu Support for the 2010 season of the FESTIVAL THEATRE Festival Theatre is generously provided by Richard Rooney Family Laura Dinner As You Like It and Richard Rooney Kiss Me, Kate The Tempest Dangerous Liaisons AVON THEATRE Evita Peter Pan TOM PATTERSON THEATRE Major Sponsor Level The Winter’s Tale Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again Sylvanacre Properties Ltd. Group of Hotels STUDIO THEATRE Festival Inn The Arden Park Hotel Do Not Go Gentle The River Garden Inn The Two Gentlemen of Verona King of Thieves Sponsor Level In-Kind Sponsor Christopher Plummer as Prospero. Photo by Andrew Eccles The Stratford Shakespeare Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these contributors to our success: The Tempest by William Shakespeare Production support Production Sponsor generously provided by Directed by Des McAnu Nona Macdonald Heaslip The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is a non-profi t organization with charitable status in Canada* and the U.S.** *Charitable registration number: 119200103 RR0002 ANTONI CIMOLINO DES M ANUFF From left: Des McAnu , Christopher Plummer and Antoni Cimolino. **As defi ned by Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code General Director Artistic Director Take home a piece of the drama with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. With original clothing and giftware, books and music, this is the place for every theatre lover! TWO LOCATIONS • Discovery Centre, across from the Festival Theatre. • Downtown in the Avon Theatre lobby. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is a non-profit organization with charitable status in Canada and the U.S. * *Subject to availability. ® Used by Amex Bank of Canada under license from American Express. Acct. Mgr: Keith Date: 29 March 2010 Job#: AX10xxxx Filename: _Stratford_FP_Spring2010 Trim: 8.375” x 10.75” # Colours: 4/0 Client: AmEx Revision #: FINAL_r1 Bleed: 8.875” x 11.25” 4 Col Process Desc.: Stratford Program Artist: TR Safety/Live: 7.375” x 9.75” Supplier: Inserts: Spring2010 Finished Size: File Built at: 100% (1:1) PMS PMS Approvals: Date: Signature: Approvals: Date: Signature: Prod Artist: Copywriter: Proofread: Studio: Acct Mngr: Art Dir: Acct Dir: Client: IN CELEBRATION OF EXCELLENCE At the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, we celebrate our cultural touchstones with zest, combining respect for the text and the rich legacy of our traditions with the fl ourish of the playful and the unexpected. On our stages, the ageless classics speak to us afresh, in a continuing dialogue with the best new voices of contemporary theatre. This is the essence of our Festival. From the Forest of Arden to the Argentina of Eva Perón, A stellar company of artists, including old friends making from Prospero’s enchanted island to the Never Land their welcome returns, is here to bring these dramatic of Peter Pan, the productions of our 2010 season will worlds to glorious life. The standards of excellence at transport you to the realms of memory and magic, Stratford can be met by very few theatres in the world. So revenge and reconciliation – where the potent art of come take your seat with us, and give us the opportunity theatre is bound to capture your heart, your mind and not only to entertain you, but also to inspire. your imagination. DES McANUFF ANTONI CIMOLINO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR GENERAL DIRECTOR Below | Director Des McAnuff (left) AnD christopher pluMMer (prospero) in reheArsAl; GerAint Wyn DAvies (stephAno). Facing page, From top | (froM left) AMAnDA lisMAn (iris), sophiA WAlker (Juno), clAire lAutier (ceres), coMposer Brave New MichAel roth AnD choreoGrApher nicolA pAntin; (froM left) Dion Johnstone (cAlibAn), GerAint Wyn DAvies AnD bruce DoW (trinculo); trish linDstrÖM (MirAnDA) AnD GAreth potter (ferDinAnD). Worlds Following page | christopher pluMMer AnD Des McAnuff; (froM left) JAMes blenDick (GonZAlo), peter hutt (Alonso), robert persichini (ADriAn), tiMothy D. stickney (sebAstiAn) AnD John vickery (Antonio). photoGrAphy by erin sAMuell. by Robert Blacker An English fleet set sail for Virginia in 1609, but the flagship carrying the new governor of the colony was wrecked in a violent storm off the Bermudas. The survivors were stranded for ten months on an uninhabited island, where they built a new ship and set sail again for their destination. The news of the storm and their sudden reappearance – in Virginia – caused a sensation in England and found its way into The Tempest in Ariel’s reference to the “still-vexed Bermoothes.” Reports of the shipwreck may have inspired the tempest that opens Shakespeare’s play. The Tempest is infused throughout with references to the New World and dreams of its possibilities and meaning. In 1578, Montaigne argued in his essay “Of the Cannibals” that the native tribes he read about in Brazil might, in their uncivilized innocence, provide a better model for society than the old corrupt civilization of Europe. Given his treatment back in Italy, Prospero might agree. Montaigne’s words literally find their way into Gonzalo’s mouth in the speech that begins: “Had I plantation of this isle, [I would allow no] “riches, poverty / And use of [servants], none.” Montaigne and Gonzalo’s socialist utopias level the classes. By contrast, the conflict between master and servant and the elusive vision of freedom resound throughout The Tempest right down to the last word of the play: “free.” We hear it right from the opening scenes. The Boatswain orders Alonso and his court to get out of his way: “What cares these roarers [the crashing waves] for the name of King?” Prospero himself sets up a hierarchy on his island, and both of his servants bristle. Even Ariel complains. It is Caliban of course who rebels. Caliban’s name is a near anagram for cannibal, an accusation that was made against native Americans. Shakespeare refers to them explicitly in Trinculo’s remark that the English “will not give a [penny] to relieve a lame beggar [but are willing to] lay out ten to see a dead Indian.” He reminds us of the then current practice of exhibiting aboriginal Americans, dead or alive, in Europe. An Inuit man, one of four forcibly brought to England from Canada in 1576, died soon after 2 his arrival. His image was preserved in paintings and in a wax cast made of his head. In recent decades, The Tempest has often been used to illustrate the evils of such colonialism, with Caliban as the chief victim. That view, however, diminishes the complexity of Shakespeare’s play. We feel sympathy for Caliban, but Shakespeare describes a creature who is eager to trade one master for another. The uncomfortable sight of him eagerly licking Stephano’s foot is a reminder of the complicity frequently contained in master/servant relationships. For his part Stephano is comfortable with the idea of murdering Prospero in order to become king of the island, and the three servants – Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban – sing memorably about freedom. In a parallel scene that borrows imagery from Macbeth, Antonio persuades Sebastian to murder his brother in order to become King of Naples. The brilliant concision of The Tempest is achieved by the way its multiple plots mirror each other, and by the way the past mirrors the present. To reinforce his rumination on old worlds and new, Shakespeare reaches as far into the past as the Aeneid, Virgil’s epic poem from the first century BC. Aeneas was the Trojan prince who, like Odysseus, wandered the Mediterranean after the fall of Troy and went on to found his new world in Italy. References to the Aeneid pepper The Tempest, and Alonso and his court duplicate part of Aeneas’s journey as they return to Italy from his daughter’s wedding in Africa, just before the play begins. Where is Prospero’s island? Neither Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden in As You Like It nor Prospero’s island can be pinned down to one location. Jan Kott writes that it “is simultaneously a Mediterranean island . and a plantation on the coast of America,” and he quotes Melville about an island in Moby Dick: “It is not on any map. true places never are.” What is important, Kott tells us, is that in both ancient and Renaissance myths, “The new world represents renewal.” Whether Prospero, his island or Shakespeare’s play offer renewal must be judged individually by members of our audience. The Tempest is full of ironies and, as it draws to a close, a series of dizzying contradictions. Miranda and Ferdinand represent something positive in this bleak world, but in their last dialogue together Miranda catches him cheating in a game of chess. She is dazzled 3 by Alonso and his court in the play’s most famous line: “O brave new world / That has such people in’t.” But it is said to a group of would-be murderers and thieves. That is why Prospero replies, “’Tis new to thee.” He knows what the King and his court represent: he has suffered at their hands. Prospero struggles with the idea of forgiving them. At first it is conditional: “They being penitent, / The sole drift of my purpose doth extend / Not a frown further.” Alonso has been changed by the events of the play, but Antonio and Sebastian have not.