Another rehearsal on the Tempest this week that found us mining even more from the text. We are finding references in the play that are spinning us off on some really interesting tangents.
Prospero's Isle is developing into a game board where he plays the characters like chess pieces. This, in turn, is giving the actors the chance to explore how they move in the space as they are 'brought into play' by Ariel at Prospero's bidding.
As ideas and discussion open up new possibilities, we actors are responding by finding new ways of relating to the text, and to other characters. Having a relatively small cast means that we have to multi-role anyway, so the chance to draw clear distinctions between our roles in terms of movement as well as characteristics is really helpful.
As we know, seldom is anything black and white, and certainly on Prospero's Isle, things are not always what they seem. This merging of truth and fantasy, of nature and the supernatural, gives us much to play with. The course of the story, from tempestuous opening to the calm reconciliation at the end, is Prospero's gameplan enacted. He stands at the centre of the labyrinth into which he draws the other players, and from which they must escape.
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