Prospero’s Books and Shakespeare’s The Tempest

The Body, Dance, and Visual Interpretation of

The Tempest

By Erin Irving and William Tucker

Edited by: Dr. Picart and Donna Gallagher

Understanding The Tempest

•The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s later plays, is considered by many to be his farewell to the stage.

•Many view Prospero as Shakespeare.

•Prospero/Shakespeare = world creators.

About the Director

•Peter Greenaway was born in 1942 in Newport, Wales.

•Studied Painting at the Walthamstow College of Art in England.

•For 11 years, starting in 1965, was a film editor for the Central Office of Information in England.

•Began making short, experimental films in 1966.

•Prospero’s Books considered his most experimental feature.

Key Themes in Prospero’s Books

•Nudity

•Greenaway’s visual approach

•Prospero speaks for everyone

•Caliban expressing himself through movement

•Sarcastic humor

Nudity•Garden of Eden

•Greenaway’s comment on conventional nudity

•Shock value

Greenaway’s Visual Approach

•Camera movement

•Color

•Nudity

•Casting Body Types

•Caliban

•Costumes

Prospero Speaks for Everyone

•Prospero creates his reality through writing.

•Master Puppeteer and Director

•Prospero World-Creator

•Shakespeare as Word-Creator

Why does Prospero give up his power?

What Do You Think?

•How can savagery and civilization be defined, respectively?

•Is Caliban’s dancing an expression of savagery?

•Who is more savage? Caliban or Prospero?

BibliographyGreenaway, Peter, et al. Prospero’s Books.

Miramax Films, 1991.

http://magnet.gr/views/greenaway/

http://www.petergreenaway.com/bio.htm

http://www.shomler.com/dance/tempest/tempest1.htm

http://www.wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/prospero.htm