Prospero's African Magic: a post-colonial production of The Tempest

Abstract

For some years I have wanted to direct The Tempest. In 1984, I began a Masters on the play, entitled Problems of Language and Meaning in The Tempest, under the supervision of Tony Voss. At that time, in the English Department at Natal University, Durban, The Tempest was very much the play to be studying. Peter Strauss gave a fascinating series of lectures on the play, exploring its colonial theme, while Rob Amato started to organize an experimental production of the play, which never came off, but which resulted in some interactive discussion and rehearsal sessions. Some ten years later, Martin Orkin claimed that the subversive, ambivalent aspects of the play as well as its multiplicity of meanings had been ignored by South African academics. (Orkin 45). This view has been fairly well challenged by my own experience.1 Later in 1984, I went to study for a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of London, and found myself writing my dissertation on Peter Brook's three productions of The Tempest. Later, I returned to London University to complete a PhD on the late plays, during which time I saw a number of films and productions and researched some of the seminal historical productions of the play.

Shakespeare in Southern Africa Vol. 15 2003: pp. 39-46