The Tempest

All photography of 'The Tempest' by and reproduced with the kind permission of Maureen Freedman Copyright 2005.

This project realised at the Wimbledon School of Art Theatre was a collaboration between myself and five other designers; Maureen Freedman, Deborah Holloway, Gareth Pahl, Emma Howard & Amber Diett.

The idea was to appropriately transform the environment of a simple white space with a 360 degree mezzanine level viewing platform and six entrances at floor level (designed by Michael Pavelka).

Director Titania Krimpas worked with 3 actors to devise the scene in The Tempest where Caliban encounters Stephano - the drunken ship's cook - and Trinculo - the fool. The comedy of the scene is derived from the disorientation of the ship-wrecked and intoxicated Stephano and Trinculo and the naivety of the primitive Caliban whose only experience of human beings has been his master Prospero and Prospero's daughter Miranda.

What begins as a comedy of errors as the characters roam in and out of the doors - observed by the audience as scientists might view mice in a maze - soon becomes a more sinister situation. The games the three drunken revellers play become more and more humiliating and brutal. With no authority to temper or correct their behaviour, Stephano soon assumes the role of King of the Island alienating Trinculo and making the awestruck and thirsty Caliban his own slave.

Their petty squabbling is dispelled however by the intervention of the Island's own magic powers. Stephano and Trinculo are struck dumb with amazement as the ragged landscape is filled with light and falling feathers.