'Tempest' storms Joss

Brian Farkas News Editor

“Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my heart! Take in the topsail!” cries the frantic crew in the stormy opening of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” directed by Emily Riehl-Bedford ’09 for the Pound of Flesh theater group.

“The Tempest” tells the story of Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda, who have been exiled to a desert island. Prospero uses his powerful magic to conjure a storm and shipwreck a boat carrying the Italian nobles who stole his title and property. When the men arrive on the island, Prospero’s supernatural servants torment them, while Miranda falls in love with the Prince of Naples.

Unlike many versions of the play that emphasize Prospero’s magic, Riehl-Bedford imagines him as a very human character. “All of his motivations—loneliness, need for control, a fear of his own mortality—these are all things that make him like us.”

Anne Sando ’10, who plays Prospero, agreed. “More than anything else, he’s afraid of his own death,” she said. “So even though he is powerful enough to drive the plot, he has the same fear that we all do.”

In another unconventional choice, the enslaved spirit Ariel will be played by three actors. Each embodies a different aspect of Ariel’s human nature—one represents his mischievous side, another his practical side, and a third his loyal side.

The show is produced by Pound of Flesh, which performs only one play each year and is coordinated and financed by the Department of English. Riehl-Bedford does not see the show’s small budget—$100—as an impediment. “Pound of Flesh is a text-based company,” she explained.

Set in the Josselyn House Parlor, the production will use no stage lights, only lamps taken from the rooms of the cast and crew. “I’m much more interested in exploring the humanity of the characters than I am with putting together a flashy show,” said Riehl-Bedford.

First performed in 1611, “The Tempest” is the last play written entirely by Shakespeare. Scholars often note the play’s pro-colonialist themes. Shakespeare drew heavily on travel literature of its time, notably the accounts of a storm off the Bermudas that nearly destroyed a fleet of English ships bound for Virginia.