Acknowledged as Shakespeare’s final solo play, The Tempest is widely celebrated as one of The Bard’s most enchanting works. It follows the story of Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, who becomes stranded on a largely uninhabited island where music, magic and supernatural creatures provide a strange education for him and his young daughter, Miranda.
To help accentuate the magical themes of the play, magicians Rhys Morgan and Robert West will be consulting on the tricks of their trade during rehearsals in order to support the wider vision of the Creative Team, led by Director Clare Prenton, for the production at Stafford Castle.
During a break from rehearsals, the pair caught up with Stafford Gatehouse Theatre’s Marketing Office, Tom Waldron, to chat about their involvement in this year’s show:
TW – “How does it feel to be back in Stafford and working on this year’s Stafford Festival Shakespeare production of The Tempest?”
RW – “I’m very excited. We don’t often get chance to be part of proper theatre. We do quite a bit of horror consultancy because that’s quite special effects heavy. We used to work a lot with a company called, ‘Theatre of the Damned’ for a few years. It’s all gore and shock elements, rather than magical flourishes.”
RM – “It’s also nice to be somewhere we’re quite familiar with because we’ve performed here [in Stafford] a couple of times, so that’s very nice, as well.”
TW – “How familiar are you with Shakespeare’s plays and has it influenced your own work?”
RW – [LAUGHS] “We’re not that familiar with Shakespeare’s works, in all honesty. Obviously I’ve seen many productions of his plays.”
RM – “We used the ‘Complete Works of Shakespeare’ in a kid’s show… we stand on it! [LAUGHS] So this is exciting for us to be proper Shakespeare people.
RW – “We think of [our act] as a BBC costume drama version of Victoriana than the brutal, gritty reality of the Victorian period.”
RM – "I think it did have a bearing on our involvement, not so much our act, but more the magic because the 1920s and 30s was a time of a lot of magic in theatres – the end of Vaudeville and before TV.”
RW – “The 20s and 30s was also a time when magic publishing became popular. There are loads of texts, books and tricks that were invented during that time that you can still find.”
RM – “Yes, [magic] was starting to move away from being a very insular, secretive hobby to being one that lots of people had access to.”
RW – “And there were lots of old fashioned tricks [popular at that time] that nobody does anymore because it involved things like, having a cane or a pair of white gloves, that fit really nicely with this setting [for the play this year].”
RM – "In particular, there was a magician who originated from Swansea whose act was called Cardini, who travelled the world… and his act was that of a gentleman returning from a night at the theatre in the 20s and 30s, dressed in the aforementioned top hat and white gloves, and that is another interesting influence we will be drawing on for this production.”
TW – “Without revealing too much, what sort of magical goings on can we expect to see in this year’s show?”
RM – “It’s an interesting one because it’s a mix of conjuring and actual magic.”
RW – “Because the character of Prospero has genuine magical powers, including spirits and that kind of stuff, so it’s working with that element. But also, the character Prospero as ‘The Duke of Milan’, is meant to be a fan of “The Liberal Arts” (as it says in the text), and this production is casting him as a fan of magic, which a lot of rich blokes of the 20s and 30s were. So it gives us scope to do fun tricks as well as looking at the darker magic arts, so to speak!"
The Tempest will open on Thursday 22nd June and run until Saturday 8th July 2017 at Stafford Castle. Tickets start at £13.50 and can be purchased from the box office on 01785 619080 or by visiting the www.staffordfestivalshakespeare.com
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