On Saturday, I went with my class to Salt Lake City to view a production of The Tempest, which was put on by the Pioneer Theater Company. I really enjoyed the production. It was well done and brought out some motifs in the play that I hadn't thought of before. The biggest thing that I noticed was the theme of redemption. It had been brought up previously in class discussion, but I never noticed till I saw the play that the character who needed redemption the most was Prospero. He was shown as consumed by his anger and desire for revenge, at least until he had his conversation with Ariel and came to his senses (the one in the play where he almost hit her, from Act V, scene 1).
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| Case in point. |
Sure, his change felt a little overdramatic, but it made me think. What's so great about forgiveness? I've found in my life that the person most changed by forgiveness is the person who was wronged. Those who can let go of their anger can find peace that those who continue to hold grudges never discover.
On a more serious note though, I felt like this production treated a much more serious-and difficult-side of redemption than did The Winter's Tale. In that play, Leontes was seeking forgiveness. He had to be penitent and humble and receive it from others. Prospero, on the other hand, had a harder test in front of him. It's relatively easy to ask others for forgiveness, but difficult to grant to them. That's the true test of our own mercy, when all is said and done. Can we forgive other people?
Haha, I like the Darth Vader reference! On a more serious note, though, I did notice that the director wanted to show the redemption of Prospero and use that for the main point of his play. I was just wondering how much of that was the director's interpretation and how much was Shakespeare's actual theme? Do you think Shakespeare meant for it to be that centered around redemption? Who knows...
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