A tragicomedy of wrongdoing, revenge, reconciliation, redemption and magic: in this year’s English Theatre Milan workshop, we’ll focus on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and create a new, abridged version, in slightly modernized English.

The Tempest dramatizes a conflict between two warring brothers, Prospero, the Duke of Milan and a celebrated magician, and Antonio, who cruelly takes over his dukedom, sending Prospero and his daughter Miranda into exile on a faraway island. This conflict is interwoven with a clash between Prospero and Caliban, the only native on the island, who helps the Duke and his daughter survive, but is later treated as a slave by the ‘milanese’ couple. Today Caliban might be seen as a forager, who knows the island like the back of his hand. In this second case,
Europeans clash with a figure from the New World that was being discovered when Shakespeare wrote the play in the early 17th century.

In our performance, we’ll bring to life the characters of Prospero, Antonio, Miranda, Ferdinand, Caliban, Ariel, the Neapolitans, Trinculo and Stephano, Caliban’s mother, the witch Sycorax, whom Shakespeare mentions but does not put onstage, but we will!

In rehearsals we’ll be asking questions such as:
• Why did Prospero, Duke of Milan, believe he could rightfully take over the island and turn Caliban into a slave?

• What can we learn about the relations between Europe and the countries beyond our borders, thanks to Prospero and Miranda’s stay on the island?

• What can Caliban teach us about a sustainable lifestyle which we might wish
to adopt in the present, given the serious environmental issues we are facing?

• How does the play relate to the Milan we know today?

Ours will be a Tempest with dialogue, music and song, which explores diversity and exclusion\inclusion, sustainability and the climate emergency, conflict and reconciliation. As a participant, you will enjoy an opportunity to act, sing and play music (if you are a singer or a musician). Or you might prefer to help with costumes, props, and promotion. Or you can simply come along as an observer and enjoy the bustle and activities of a theatre workshop.

We’ll be rehearsing at the All Saints Church, via Solferino 17 (a 15 minute walk from the Duomo or five minutes from Moscova Underground). The workshop will run on Wednesdays from 6.30pm to 9.00pm from 25th October through to mid May. Final performances will take place at the All Saints Church and at a venue to be decided. To take part in the workshop, please write now sending a short CV, and a short letter of motivation to info@EnglishTheatreMilan.org

We ask you as well to make a donation of 300 euro; this includes the Annual Membership fee to English Theatre Milan.