“The Tempest” — in Africa

I think I’ve been put off “The Tem­pest” by John Geilgud’s mis­con­ceived film “Prospero’s Books”, and by never hav­ing stud­ied it in any depth.  But this RSC pro­duc­tion at Shef­field was superb, done in col­lab­or­a­tion with a South African theatre com­pany and using south­ern african myth­o­logy and cos­tumes and spir­its via pup­petry. The magic works well in an African con­text.  There was the colo­nial frame­work too. Anthony Sher was superb as Pros­pero, as were Atandwa Kani as Ariel, John Kani as Caliban and Tin­arie Van Wyk Loots as Mir­anda.  There was a lot of sym­pathy for Caliban, who was left as ruler of the island in the end, and had clearly been usurped and unfairly used by Pros­pero, an incon­sist­ent and wil­ful ruler, quite close to being the tyr­ant that Caliban casts him as.