Braving the Tempest

Now that you know why we started this little adventure into Shakespeare’s world, I thought I’d tell you a bit about where we’re starting.  The first play we have chosen to tackle is The Tempest.

Personally, I know nothing about Tempest except that I saw the trailer for the 2010 movie at some point.  The trailer intrigued me and I always meant to pick up the movie but never did.  To be honest, because of the darker tone of the trailer, I assumed Tempest was a tragedy.  It’s not.  So now I’m trying to shift my mindset as I dive into Shakespeare’s last comedy.

Now, multiple people have asked me “Why are you starting with Tempest? That’s the last one he wrote!”  I know.  But it is listed as the first play in the First Folio, so we went with that.  I’m actually really excited to dive into Shakespeare’s final work first and here’s why:

None of Shakespeare’s plays is so “baffling and elusive as The Tempest,” wrote Peter Brook, the director of four remarkable productions of this comedy.  But its power is as noticeable as its mystery, and Brook also believes that this is Shakespeare’s “complete and final statement, and that it deals with the whole condition of man.”  Unlock this puzzle and a world of understanding may lie before you. – John Russel Brown

That’s a bit from the introduction of my copy of the play.  After reading that, I was eager to get started!  I’ve studied several of Shakespeare’s plays and have been amazed at the poetry, the exploration of human nature, the thrilling drama!  I obviously love Shakespeare a lot given I’m embarking on a quest to read all of his plays.  So I’m insanely curious!  How good was his final work?  How much different is it really from his other plays?  What themes did he decide to explore in his final years of writing?  Truthfully, I don’t think I could wait until the end of our journey to read his last play.  I want to explore it now!

We probably have our work cut out for us tackling this “baffling and elusive” play.  I suppose you’ll just have to keep following us to see how we manage.

But I think between the five of us we can brave The Tempest.

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Here is where the story begins.

Once upon a time, I thought it would be fun to take a semester to study in Britain. My main consideration was the sheep. There are sheep around where I’m from, but Oregon sheep aren’t as great as English sheep. If I went to Britain, I could see some English sheep, and perhaps even Welsh and Scottish sheep. So I went.

There were some sheep. They were great. Here are some of them, through a hedge on the side of the highway leading to Jane Austen’s village:

I also encountered a few human beings on my British adventure. One of them shared my room, another my house. Some others lived elsewhere in my section of London. (None of these people, by the way, are British. They, too, were studying abroad.) We went to museums, had tea, rode trains, and walked along the highway to Jane Austen’s village together. Most of all – except perhaps the tea, as we drank quite a bit of tea – we went to plays. We saw plays with our classes, plays on our own, good plays, horrible plays, musical plays, Restoration plays, modern plays… and Shakespeare plays. And that’s where this project began.

I didn’t like Shakespeare much when I read his work in high school – because we had to read it in high school. In college, though, it was an option, one which few of my fellow English majors chose. Since I didn’t like most of my fellow English majors, I began reading and liking Shakespeare in keeping with my rebellious nature. In London, however, these wonderful people I discovered in my room, house, and neighborhood turned out to be a new kind of creature: people whom I like and who like Shakespeare.

Now in the winter of my discontent (known to many people as “life after college”), I have to come to the disappointing realization that I can’t even name half of Shakespeare’s plays – first-world problem, but problem nonetheless. What kind of English major was I? Not a very dedicated one, as it turns out, but that’s another conversation. The solution, of course, is to read them (or, I suppose, memorize all of the titles; it wasn’t so much that I didn’t know the plot lines as that I didn’t know the names), but thirty-eight plays on my own with no due dates or professors? I couldn’t do it on my own. Enter Katy, the most drama-happy person I know who doesn’t drive me crazy, also in the winter of her discontent though ironically less dramatic about it. “Will you read all of Shakespeare’s plays with me, Katy?” I asked. We needn’t go into the details of that Facebook exchange; let it suffice to say that we discussed the issue, and eventually enter Liz and Hannah.

It won’t be easy, but I work pretty well under peer pressure. Approximately seventeen months from now, this particular problem in my life will be eradicated and we can move on to the next small-order concern.

Enjoy.

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