THE TEMPEST

Last Saturday I went with my wife and daughter to see a production of the Tempest in English. Now, before you have visions of Shakespearean thespians touring from the U.K., I should say that the reason for the choice of language was that the piece was a collaboration between the theatre in Odense and a Chinese theatre company, which was originally performed at the Shanghai Expo. It was also only loosely based on the Tempest. True, there was an island, with Prospero (Danish) and Caliban (Chinese) and Ariel (Chinese); but soliloquys from other Shakespeare plays kept popping up, and the English was not particularly Elizabethan.

Being a Chinese troupe, there was some terrific acrobatics, as Prospero was cast as a sort of circus entertainer. All in all, it worked really well, even though it was completely different from what I was expecting.

Walter Blotscher