Word: calibans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This production’s other conceptual flourish is its treatment of Caliban, a grotesque, half-formed savage who has particularly fascinated directors since the rise of postcolonial theory in the 1950s. Because Caliban is enslaved by the exiled European duke Prospero, he is sometimes portrayed as a heroic rebel, or at least as a more “noble savage...
...think such readings are shallow, and it is to Salas’ credit that Caliban is petty, disgusting, and crude throughout the play. Seemingly unable to let the character be, however, Salas has split Caliban in half (or doubled him, I’m not sure). Caliban is played by two people: James M. Leaf ’10 and James Smith ’10, each dressed in rags and dirt, stomp around together, dividing up their character’s lines...
...still don’t understand why there had to be two moon-calves. The choice doesn’t seem to be motivated by any kind of political agenda, and little use is made of the fact that Caliban could be in two places at once if he wanted to. It’s an interesting decision, but not a very productive...
Jamestown spawned four centuries of myths. The wreck of a reinforcement expedition in Bermuda inspired Shakespeare's magic play, The Tempest (1611), complete with Caliban, a savage aboriginal; a passage in one of John Smith's many promotional tracts inspired a verse in Peggy Lee's song Fever (1958)--"Captain Smith and Pocahontas had a very mad affair." In reality, Jamestown was a hardheaded business proposition. The 104 English settlers who stayed when the ships went home--gentlemen, soldiers, privateers, artisans, laborers, boys (no women yet)--were late entrants in the New World sweepstakes. Spain had conquered Mexico...
...pitches through a sliding microtonal minefield. A small Renaissance ensemble often accompanies the shadowy, faceless Ariel (Mezzo Susan Quittmeyer) on his spritely missions, and his unaccompanied Where the bee sucks becomes a mock-Elizabethan song. A trio of alto sax, electric guitar and electric bass represents the bestial Caliban (Mezzo Ann Howard), and his drunken revels with Trinculo and Stephano are celebrated with some exquisitely low-down jazzrock that closes the first act in a brilliant theatrical burst. (Eaton, 50, a professor of composition at Indiana University, was a successful jazz pianist in his younger days...