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The Tempest: Michael Hordern (BBC Shakespeare Collection) 1980 - DVD
Our Price: £9.95 (subject to change)
A brief synopsis and history of the work
Review date: 2008-07-20 Rating: 8 out of 10
Prospero, the true Duke of Milan is now living on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, the savage Caliban and Ariel, a spirit of the air. Raising a storm to bring his brother - the usurper of his dukedom - along with his royal entourage, to the island. Prospero contrives his revenge.
The quality cast of this production help bring to life the magic and intrigue of a tale of spirits, sorcery, monsters, maidens and shipwrecked scheming noblemen. In what is regarded as his final play, Shakespeare, at the height of his powers, deftly explores the contrasting themes of control and power, illusion and reality and nature and society.
From its spectacular, storm-ravaged opening, Shakespeare's last play illustrates his genius for interweaving the tangible and intangible elements of human existence . . .
The Kings Men acted The Tempest before their patron, James I & VI of Scotland, at Whitehall on First Day of November 1611. (It was also chosen for performances during the festivities for the marriage of James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to the Elector Palatine during the winter of 1612-13.) Shakespeare's play takes place on a desert island somewhere between Tunis and Naples; he derived some details of it from his reading of travel literature, including accounts of an expedition of nine ships taking five hundred colonists from Plymouth to Virginia, which set sail in May 1609. On 29 July the flagship, the Sea-Adventure, was wrecked by a storm on the coast of the Bermudas. She was presumed lost, but on 23 May 1610 those on board her arrived safely in Jamestown, having found shelter on the island of Bermuda where they were able to build the pinnances in which they completed their journey.
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Reviews
I would have expected better from the BBC
Review date: 2008-04-06 Rating: 4 out of 10
I bought this dvd because my son is acting in a school production of the Tempest so he and we needed to be able to see the whole play. I expected the BBC and Miachael Hordern to provide a good version, especially as this was part of a BBC project to produce the entire Shakespeare canon.
However this is an unambitious pedestrian production. The first problem is that, with the BBC's desire to stick with the whole text but stay within reasonable time limits, large sections of the play, especially early on, are gabbled through at an excessive pace. The opening storm scene in particular is almost unbearable with heavy background noises and much rushing about and bellowing making it impossible to follow the action - Shakespeare's wordiness is totally unsuited to such attempts at realism.
The second problem is that, apart from Hordern as Prospero, and his fey sidekick, Arial, and maybe Caliban, the acting is horribly wooden. None of the players seem at all comfortable in their roles. My son was horrified by his character, Goncalo, as he could not imagine playing such a part, and I'm sure that comes from the ineffectual way it is presented here.
That is made worse by a struggle with the medium. There is a balance to be found between the values and techniques of stage and TV but it has not been found here. This feels like an amateur stage production performed in front of a TV camera, neither medium working as it could. Maybe I've forgotten how far we have come since 1980.
However there is one chink of light in the whole affair. Arial, and his crew of spirits, are hugely entertaining although maybe not intentionally. I have never seen such an outrageously camp set of performances and I can only assume that somebody subversive cast a bunch of gay actors and dancers in the male parts and told them to ham it up as far as they could - if they were going to be faeries they had better be extreme fairies. The female spirits are deliciously pathetic - Miranda and her prince are in ecstasies over their betrothal gift from Prospero, consisting of a bunch of gawky women in floaty drapes simpering about and wailing in that semi-musical style that opera sometimes uses when speech would do perfectly well. It would be embarrassing in the Ambridge Christmas show, here you can only assume that they meant it to be embarrassing.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Warren Clarke
Cedric Messina - Producer
Michael Hordern
Pippa Guard
Director(s):
Recording label: DDHE/SIMPLY - under license from BBC Worldwide
Manufacturer: DDHE/SIMPLY - under license from BBC Worldwide
EAN: 5019322213734
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 125 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)