Globe Education Online

This is Jasper's third blog entry for the 2000 production of The Tempest, in which he talks aboutpreviews of the show, facing difficulties on the first night, and Caliban and the audience.

Previews

We have begun to preview The Tempest now. It has been but the weather has been appalling. One night the storms were so loud that it was virtually impossible to hear anything. The water was thundering off the roof. It was wonderful though, because the storm began at the beginning of Act 5 as Prospero says ‘Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves’. It then stopped abruptly at the end of the speech. The audience was cheering - it was very spectacular. It created quite an atmosphere. Some nights though it has just been drizzling, which isn’t so nice. It's unpleasant for everyone. The audience is uncomfortable, which feeds through to the actors.

I’ve have been surprised by the great response that Caliban has got from the audience. They are really ready to respond vocally. I was expecting it to be very hard work. It so different from an audience who sit in the dark where they almost seem to have their arms folded saying ‘come on then, make me laugh’, but here they want to be talked to and taken notice of. They want to enjoy themselves. It's very seductive and you have to learn to edit yourself, otherwise you will be playing everything to the audience. You have to be disciplined about it. The story that I’m telling is comic, but also quite dark. It's murder plot. I have found it hard to make them be quiet and understand that Caliban is not such a cuddly monster. I find it very annoying when there are people in the audience who think that I come on stage just to make them laugh, no matter what I am saying.

First Night Difficulties

The first night was hard because we had an understudy on stage. Paul Chahidi, who plays Trinculo, broke his ankle just before the opening performance. Mark Rylance went on stage with only a few hours notice. He was wonderful and the audience loved him. He plays to the audience a lot. It surprised me how cheeky he was on stage. But it was very challenging for me, as I didn’t know what he was going to do or where he was going to be on the stage. But he was very generous to play alongside.

He would set things up for me so that I was able to mock him and get a laugh from the audience. I thought he did a wonderful job.

We now have a new Trinculo. This has really changed the dynamic of the Caliban, Stephano, Trinculo trio. The rhythm is very different. The new actor has had a very difficult job. He had to learn the part in just one day.

Caliban and the Audience

Some people are surprised by how Caliban has turned out to be the ‘groundlings friend’. He has been the first character they warmed to. I wasn’t. I have played parts like this before and I have found that the best approach is to talk to the audience. Then they are on your side. I was surprised by quite how much that they are willing to give back in return. On the first night they were screaming ‘aaaarrrrr’, when I was telling them about what the spirits were doing to me. But, this also means that they often find it difficult to change their response to Caliban when he changes into a more aggressive character and starts talking about killing Prospero.

I still have so many choices to make for Caliban. Is he intelligent or is he stupid? Is he horrible or does he react to people thinking he's horrible by behaving that way – or, in terms of the play – is he just drunk? How much is he manipulating Stephano and Trinculo into killing Prospero for him? I’m thinking about all of these things at the moment and as yet haven’t come up with many answers.

Playing in the Globe Theatre is a very powerful and wonderful experience. From the stage you can only see a tiny bit of sky, and it feels like you could be anywhere in the world. It almost doesn’t seem real.

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process-they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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