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vanessakm 's review for:
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
I'm not an exhaustive reader of Shakespeare by any means. I'm still at the top of the list with your Othellos and Lears, moreso than your deep cuts: your Two Gentlemen of Verona or your Cymbeline's. This is maybe the 10th Shakespeare play I've read, and at first impression, it is thus far my least favorite. Chiefly because there just isn't a lot going on. Murder plots never come to fruition because the plotters are obvious bunglers who might be funny if they didn't natter on quite so much. A wedding is in the works, but it's almost a foregone conclusion after the couple meet, and they are the least interesting characters, so who really cares. There are some comical or thoughtful interludes, but there's a lot of other exposition to wade through in order to get to them.
After some thought though, I think I would enjoy seeing this performed live. While generally I think it's better to have read Shakespeare first-he is, after all, a verbose guy and there's a lot to unpack in his work-I think the experience of this play would be greatly improved between page and stage.*
The play isn't that quotable, as far as Shakespeare goes, but it does include this lovely, memorable line:
If you are into deeper meanings, themes of colonialism abound. Jamestown and the New World would have been very much in the public's mind at the time this play, one of Shakespeare's last, was written. Since Prospero, the primary colonizing force, delivers a blanket apology for his misdeeds in the epilogue, I can't say I understand what Shakespeare's stance on the subject was.
*Also, I'd like to apologize for rhyming.
After some thought though, I think I would enjoy seeing this performed live. While generally I think it's better to have read Shakespeare first-he is, after all, a verbose guy and there's a lot to unpack in his work-I think the experience of this play would be greatly improved between page and stage.*
The play isn't that quotable, as far as Shakespeare goes, but it does include this lovely, memorable line:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
If you are into deeper meanings, themes of colonialism abound. Jamestown and the New World would have been very much in the public's mind at the time this play, one of Shakespeare's last, was written. Since Prospero, the primary colonizing force, delivers a blanket apology for his misdeeds in the epilogue, I can't say I understand what Shakespeare's stance on the subject was.
*Also, I'd like to apologize for rhyming.