Shakespeare’s The Tempest is sometimes described as his testament. His final play, it brings together all the essential motifs of his comedies and tragedies: young lovers, rulers’ manipulative struggles for power, a world of mystical beings, as well as lost fools and clowns – a world of chaos that eventually returns to order.

 

Prospero rules over a deserted island, served by the supernatural being Ariel, while the island itself was taken from Caliban. And so begins a web of misunderstandings and waiting for a second chance. Longings for love emerge, and magic helps bring many things to pass. The play can be read as a fairy tale, but also as a mystical message or as a living world reflecting the cycles of human society, with its unfulfilled desires and ambitions giving rise to frustration and perpetuating a cycle of dissatisfaction. Is it possible to break such a cycle and find a new meaning? What meaning does theatre still hold for us? In the mysterious space of an island, the creator Prospero eventually renounces his mastery and breaks the magic wand with which he controlled magic, the elements and other people. Liberation follows. The Tempest thus also features theatre within theatre: Prospero’s play with the others, and the others’ struggles to play their own lives towards happiness. The island is almost like our own world, full of endless desires for fulfilled love, a better position in life, a more secure existence and acceptance. What are the storms and profound turning points in our lives? How do they sweep through us, and where can they take us?