In just one week, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival will present it's fifteenth season of Modern Shakespeare Festival,with modern adaptations of "The Tempest" and "As You Like It". For the purpose of this article, I will be including information that I found on the Michigan Shakespeare Festival's website detailing their interpretation and modern day production of "The Tempest".

The Tempest is reputed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote, and some say the character of Prospero represents the author and his poignant farewell to the stage. The play incorporates love, tragedy and comedy combined in equal measure.

As Shakespeare's other late romances, The Tempest is a play about forgiveness, faith, reconciliation, and trust in future generations to seal such reconciliation. Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan, draws his enemies, his brother Antonio and Alonso King of Naples, to his enchanted island to exact his revenge. Ultimately, he finds peace and the ability to forgive, "...the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance."

As we are transported on this majestic journey, The Tempest integrates rough magic, represented by Prospero's "art," which is both lyrical and grotesque, with the fairy tale romance and wonderful coalescence of Prospero's daughter Miranda and Alonso's son Ferdinand. Their union represents the joyous harmony of a fresh new future, "O, brave new world."

Interweave these themes with the ethereal presence of Ariel, spirit of the air, the earthly, monstrous, and conniving Caliban and outlandishly comic Trinculo and Stephano, and we encounter an island of imaginative concepts. Through these devices we explore the nature of power and authority, the conflicting assertions of vengeance and forgiveness, and the implications of justice and mercy.

The Tempest is undoubtedly one of Shakespeare's most brilliant multifaceted plays. Its opulent language, blissful music, and delightful comedy, have made it a favorite of audiences for many decades.

For more information about Modern Shakespeare Festivals,"The Tempest and "As You Like It', or to obtain tickets for the upcoming Michigan Shakespeare Festival, visit the website at: http://www.michiganshakespearefestival.com.  Jennifer Stover