WONDER, FORGIVENESS, MAGIC and MOTHERS IN THE TEMPEST
I come to this a month after the passing of my mother. I share this with you because as artists we bring our experience with us. I sit in the darkness trying to write these notes. Why THE TEMPEST? Why now? But no words come. These days I often sit in the darkness. And I feel frozen. Frozen in silent grief.
ON WONDER
Noun: rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Today, as I am sitting in the dark unable to sleep, I hear a morning bird, a lark, first one lark, then many, singing the dawn into existence, and I am filled with wonder. I am in awe of the resilience of the day that begins again with a song. I find myself with tears running down my face. And I am no longer frozen. Something has melted, something has moved.
And I think about the power of wonder.
And I think of this play.
We begin with Prospero, stranded in a storm of revenge. For her, the grief is loud, not silent. She is caught in anger, seeking revenge, for twelve years planning and plotting retribution. But over the course of the play… something shifts. Is it possible she receives the reflection of the wonder of humanity in her daughter’s eyes? Is it possible that wonder begins the shift? The movement towards forgiveness?
“Oh wonder!” Her daughter Miranda says. “How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it.”
ON FORGIVENESS
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. (Lewis B. Smedes)
I am moved that at the end of his career, after investigating ambition, hubris, inaction, and of course, love, Shakespeare came back around to wrestle with forgiveness. All four of the plays we call Romances ( WINTER’S TALE, CYMBELINE, PERICLES and the TEMPEST) examine forgiveness in one way or another. At its heart, THE TEMPEST follows Prospero’s journey from revenge to forgiveness. This forgiveness does not come easily, nor quickly, nor readily.
I am fascinated by Shakespeare’s illumination of the practice of forgiveness. That this practice takes work and effort and energy, which can free us. And one of the steps necessary for forgiveness is compassion for those who have wronged us. Shakespeare has Ariel, the spirit, the non-human character in the play whisper this human truth in this beautiful exchange with Prospero. This simple exchange always fills me with wonder.
ARIEL: Your charm so strongly works’em
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender
PROSPERO: Dost thou think so spirit?
ARIEL: Mine would. Were I human.
ON MAGIC, COMMUNITY AND ART
One cannot talk about THE TEMPEST without talking about magic. Prospero is after all a magician, a sorcerer and in female form, perhaps a witch. Prospero refers to her magic as art. In our production the magic will be created by the community on stage. We will not have lights or projections or fancy illusions. What we will have is a group of actors coming together to create something beyond themselves. After two years in isolation, a group of actors coming together to conjure “sounds and sweet airs” is perhaps greatest magic of all.
SO WHY THE TEMPEST? WHY NOW?
Because Shakespeare’s magic is his words. And these words exist in this play.
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury
Do I take part.
We need these words. Yesterday. Today. And Always.
I am interested, at this moment in our history, with our polarized country and war-torn world, in what moves us forward. I am interested in investigating and illuminating, what it takes, and what it costs, to let go of the betrayals, the hatreds, the fears that bind us - and what it takes and costs to have the courage to return to wonder at the human spirit in order to move through the storm into the dawn beyond… and begin again.
And finally…ON MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
I want to thank Mike Ryan and Laura Gordon for inviting me on this journey. I joined this production knowing that Prospero would be played by Laura Gordon. How lucky for me. How excited I am to explore this play with Laura and this incredible company of actors. And how wonderful to be able to investigate the fierce love between mothers and daughters.
I dedicate this to my mother. She who taught me about the courage and grace it takes to forgive. She who taught me to wonder.
