“Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free…”
The final words spoken by the powerful magician Prospero in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, some believe the words were also the Bard’s own farewell or retirement speech.
According to records, Shakespeare died approximately four-to-five years after he wrote The Tempest, his last solo project, so it’s apt that 400 years since his death on May 3, 1616 that drama students at W.L. Seaton Secondary School’s 27th Street Theatre are staging The Tempest as their year-end production.
For Grade 12 student Katie Beatty, who plays a female version of Prospero named Prospera in this production, it will be one of the last times she speaks Shakespeare’s words before she graduates.
“Prospera’s last speech is like Shakespeare’s last words. He definitely puts himself in Prospera as the playmaker,” said Beatty.
This is, in fact, the second year Beatty has brought a Shakespearean character to the stage. Last year, she starred as Juliet in a Jules Verne-steampunk inspired version of Romeo and Juliet at Seaton.
The 27 students who make up The Tempest cast, some in double roles, have already had the opportunity to workshop the play at the Good Will Shakespeare Festival in Summerland, which took place earlier this month.
“I didn’t know (The Tempest) before I read the script, and some of us didn’t have a full aspect of the story,” said Jordan Mathie, who plays Ferdinand. “We did a 25-minute piece that everyone was in at the festival. It gave us a taste of what it’s like to be in front of an audience.”
Under drama teacher Lana O’Brien’s direction, the students are telling a more traditional version of The Tempest.
“This one is more challenging,” said O’Brien. “Because we didn’t know we would do a second Shakespeare play within a year, we’ve worked hard to understand what (Shakespeare) was trying to say. It’s not Elizabethan. There’s not a distinct timeline. It’s like A Midsummer’s Night Dream in that it is a fantasy, but it’s more of a romance.”
For those who have not read or seen the stage or various film versions of The Tempest, the most recent being the 2010 film directed by Julie Taymor and starring Helen Mirren as another female Prospera, the story is set on an island where magic abounds.
Prospera, the sorceress, who in Shakespeare’s story is the Duke of Milan, conjures up a plan to put her daughter Miranda (played here by Chelsea Tansey) into her rightful place.
She creates a storm that will bring her brother, Antonio, and King Alonso of Naples to the island, where her spirit servant Ariel helps her to bring Miranda and Alonso’s son Ferdinand together.
“Prospera has the ability to bring magical creatures to do her bidding; some she uses as slaves,” said Beatty.
“Ferdinand is the second guy I have ever met, and I am teased the whole way through about that,” said Tansey, who in real life is dating her costar, Mathie. “Prospera puts him through many tests to test his love for Miranda, but you are rooting for them as her intentions are good.”
In the end, love reigns.
To make the play more intimate, O’Brien and her student crew strayed from the traditional proscenium theatre space, where the stage is located at one end of the theatre and the audience sits in front, to an alleyway theatre set, where the audience sits on both sides of the stage, leaving a large open centre for the actors to perform in. On opposite ends of the theatre are a lit-up backdrop screen which shows the ocean, and on the other side is the rocky outcrop of the island.
“Everyone can see you this way and it allows you to open up more and connect with the audience,” said Beatty.
“The challenge is to light the actors without lighting the audience,” added O’Brien, “This is a very moody and magical setting.”
For stage manager Natasha Tyler, it allows the cast and crew to problem solve.
“It stretches our knowledge on how to do things and figure out how to do them,” she said.
The Tempest takes the stage at Seaton’s 27th Street Theatre June 6 to 11 nightly at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinée on June 11. Only 72 seats are available for each show. Tickets are available at the Seaton office or call 250-542-3361 ext. 2227 to reserve.
