ABSTRACT
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2006-2007 production of The Tempest, directed by Rupert Goold, featured Patrick Stewart as an imposing and angry Prospero, clad in animal skins, stranded in an inhospitable, snowy wasteland. The second scene, when the exiled Duke has decided, finally, to share with his daughter the mystery of her background and his own fallen fortunes, had a decidedly schoolmaster-student dynamic. Alone with her father inside their sparse, wooden shack home, Mariah Gale’s teenaged Miranda sat in tense anticipation, knees together, back straight, hands clasped, her attention riveted on her father, speaking only after thrusting her hand into the air and waiting for permission to proceed, as a proper pupil might. As the scene progressed, she was a rapt listener, leaning in, absorbing and learning from his teaching, distressed by his story but hungry for more. Prospero relayed his tale with a mixture of obvious regret for his neglect of his former duties and insistence that Miranda understand what he was teaching her.
