The Concept Of Theatre In The Tempest And Hagseed

Theatre is vital to the human experience, for centuries, the theatre has been utilized as a source of entertainment to recount stories and messages. It enables humankind to identify with the person, them-self by perceiving how people respond to one another upon the stage. As said by Trove Jansson “A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world because that’s where people are shown what they could be if they wanted and what they’d like to be if they dared to and what they really are.”

During the production of The Tempest, magic had a great cultural significance and can be seen throughout the Tempest as Shakespeare draws heavily on its influence through many different forms. This can be seen, through the different aspects of Sycorax’s role as the evil witch to the tempest that Prospero conjures, and also the tempest who represents Prospero’s power at the start of the play, consequently this use of magic, had a much greater effect on Shakespeare’s contextual audience than can be felt today.

In Hagseed Atwood expresses her love of theatre by capturing Prospero’s magic in the form of theatre direction. As Felix himself is a theatre director and the magic he wields is largely in respect to the theatrical form. However, Atwood also introduces a new kind of magic to keep audiences engaged and to draw similarities from the tempest about the vague line between fantasy and reality, in doing so she uses technology and drug culture.

Felix can invoke his very own sort of magic through the assistance of 8Handz, who utilizes sound and special visualizations to trap Tony and Sal into seeing things that are not so much there. By doing so Atwood shows how similar issues can impact humanity, even though time and culture can affect the issue the general idea is still the same.

In both the tempest and Hagseed power and imprisonment has played a major role as imprisonment has been utilised as a way to gain power or to exercise it. In the Tempest, the concept of imprisonment has been portrayed both literal and figurative and as said by Felix in Hagseed the Tempest is “a play about prisons”. Imprisonment is seen throughout the Tempest as Prospero and Miranda are forced to live in exile on a remote island, where Prospero enslaves the island’s only native inhabitant (Caliban) and forces Ariel to be his work. Prospero is ultimately the central focus of the play and holds power over all the other characters, however, he himself is imprisoned by his own past of his brother’s betrayal.

The motifs of servant and master are utilized throughout the play as a path for Prospero to exercise his power as he has authority. Furthermore, this can be seen through his imprisonment over Ariel. ‘Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. / Approach, my Ariel, come as said in by Act 1 Scene 2 and ‘Do you love me, master? no?’ as said by Ariel in Act 4 Scene 1. These quotes reflect the imprisonment of Ariel by Prospero. Even though Ariel was freed by Prospero from his ‘cloven pine’ he is still imprisoned as he is to act as a slave for Prospero. Prospero is in control of the other characters such as Ariel, including their past as well as their future, however, he also relies on them to complete his future plans. He acknowledges Ariels impact and repeats his promise that Ariel ‘shalt be as free / As mountain winds’. This can also be seen as Prosperso’s technique of further controlling Ariel by manipulating Ariel into doing what he wants.

Its seen in the Hagseed as Atwood has made the setting in a prison to further restate this theme on a literal platform, however motifs of servant and master is still apparent in the book however just not on the same level. Felix still uses people to get what he wants. In the prison he works to teach the inmates about drama, however he uses this to manipulate them into doing what he wants. The imprisonment of Prospero has also been represented in the book

Hagseed and the Tempest is a textual discussion that reflects back into theatre and life as they display powerful themes that take place throughout everyone’s life. It indicates how, despite the fact that these two texts were made in different historical periods, distinctive areas and conditions, regardless they show how the general and immortal topics that were pertinent in Shakespeare’s time are as yet applicable in the present age in this way humankind never shows signs of change.