Sixty-Minute Shakespeare: The Tempest

The Tempest, a story about family, treachery, and love, revolves around a father’s magical manipulations that control his daughter’s romantic fate and exact revenge upon his enemies. The lead figure, Prospero, uses magic to shipwreck his brother, Alonso, and Alonso’s companions after they steal his position as Duke and leave him and his daughter, Miranda, to die. Much like its title, the play explores not only the stormy seas called forth by magic, but the whirlwind of emotions that rule Prospero’s actions and those of his foes. In the end, calmer seas prevail. Miranda’s happiness in finding love leads Prospero to forgive his brother and to eventually ask the audience to also forgive him for his selfish actions. Sixty-Minute Shakespeare: The Tempest is written in a manner true to the Bard’s intent, while being presented in a condensed form that can prove less daunting to some readers. The Sixty-Minute Shakespeare condensation of the classic is also a more approachable production for some schools and theater companies because it only takes 60 minutes to stage, rather than the three-hour commitment of the original play. Cass Foster’s The Tempest does not modernize the prose and verse, but instead provides the kind of rich experience, loyal to the original, that only a lifelong master of Shakespearean Theater could create.