The Tempest storms into the STC

Arts & Entertainment Stage

John Moyle
November 6, 2022

Image: Richard Roxburgh in STC's The Tempest. Photo: Rene Vaile

Shakespeare’s The Tempest, his play about all aspects of life, storms into the Sydney Theatre Company in November for a short run with two of the leading lights of Australian theatre, director Kip Williams and actor Richard Roxburgh.

Williams’ last triumph for the STC was The Picture of Dorian Gray, much lauded for its innovative approach to technology and casting, while Roxburgh is returning to the STC for the first time in years after thrilling us recently on the TV series Rake, Bali 2002 and the upcoming film Shantaram.

The Tempest is regarded by many to be Shakespeare’s final large text and contains elements of both tragedy and comedy, overlaid with magic and a subtext of colonialism and identity politics and the notion of letting go of previous lives and concepts.

The shipwreck in Act I, Scene 1, in a 1797 engraving by Benjamin Smith after a painting by George Romney

It tells the story of Prospero, who is living in exile on an island with his daughter Miranda, and a half human inhabitant, Caliban, and Ariel, a spirit he controls with a smattering of white magic.

Sensing his brother Antonio, who has usurped him as Duke of Milan, sailing past the island, Prospero conjures up a storm and the play begins in earnest.

“Being such an imaginative play it gives me a huge amount of license. It is a play that has magic in it, it is a play that speaks directly to the process of making art and theatre, so within the text there is license for us to develop a rich and exciting theatrical universe,” Kip Williams, director, says.

Ariel, Prospero and Miranda, painting by William Hamilton 1797

Roxburgh, who is playing Prospero, agrees and adds: “It has to speak to us in a way that we understand its deepest meanings, and there is a strong theme of colonisation in the story of The Tempest, which obviously when doing it in 2022 in Australia is something that has to be addressed.”

There has been a lot of study regarding whether this was Shakespeare’s retirement play, and some of it is very subjective and some of its is conjecture.

“There are lines, words and phrases that are said, and whether or not it is his final loves song to the theatre before he steps away there are things that are said that have that feeling,” says Roxburgh.

The first page of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, printed in the First Folio of 1623

Williams has taken an open approach to casting, with Biripi man and multi-Helpmann award winner, Guy Simon, in the role of Caliban, the only native inhabitant of the unnamed island.

“In this production we are also looking at reframing Caliban somewhat and there are some textual interpretations within the production that might give a different idea to how Caliban evolves within the process,” Williams says.

Roxburgh feels that this is the time in his career for him to take on the complex role of Prospero.

“You need quite a heft of life experience under your belt, and it really helps to have had the benefit of having lived and experienced things,” Roxburgh says.

With the coupling of these two informed and imaginative theatrical practitioners with a cast including the great Peter Carroll,The Tempest promises to be one of the most exciting productions of the year for the STC.