After going to Woolsthorpe Manor, we went to see The Tempest being performed, where we saw Katie and Grace, and Evie and Annie, her sisters, who came to watch too. First we bought a little picnic, and we ate it all together with everyone, sitting on the blanket on the lawn. Some people had brought tables and chairs and doilies and even one of those chandelier things that stand up on the table! It was all very exciting. Every now and then we heard, “Ladies and gents, the performance will begin in half of an hour,” getting lower and lower as time went by. We ate our picnic and then started playing games on the grass. Soon we heard, “Ladies and gents, the performance will begin in three minutes,” so we gathered up our blankets and left the tables to go to the show tent (as the cast performed inside a tent).
There was only a short one-minute queue to get down the stairs and pass on your tickets. We were told to go down Room 4, but, being anarchists, we decided to go down Room 3 for the sake of it! We were seated right down at the front, but during the interval we moved up a few layers so we could see a bit more of the big stage. The actors and actresses were really good – especially Miranda, who did her expressions and tone of voice brilliantly. Sooner or later, I whispered to Tilly, “Oh, poor Miranda!” because when she slept by Prospero’s magic, she sat with her head hung down for a good half hour without budging an inch, and her neck must have been straining! But in the show altogether she seemed smiley and played her part super, super well. She was certainly very good at ‘listening’ whilst her father was banging on and on about his and her past lives!
The play was all about Prospero, the most main character, who was, before, the Duke of Milan. His brother Antonio, however, was jealous of his role, and really did think he ought to have the dukedom. So he set out to sea from Naples, with his poor brother, and threw him and his young toddler Miranda into a boat with no kind of smart belonging whatsoever! They were to die (so he thought), and never realise he had taken over his rights to be duke whilst they starved in the sea.
But truly, they were not starving. Prospero’s kind friend Gonzalo was on the great vessel at that time, and he prepared the little boat with food and water and warm blankets, enough to last a long while, and the nice man and Miranda were cast upon an island still alive. There they lived in a cave, where Prospero founded magic and learnt lots of good spells. He freed a spirit, Ariel, who was henceforth his special servant; yet he still promised to free him to liberty whilst he still was alive. He also found another slave – Caliban, the monster son of Sycorax the evil witch; though he was friendly enough, and was better than nothing.
One day, Miranda came out from the cave to find her father casting a huge vessel underneath the waves with his magic. “Father, why hurt the people on board this ship?” she asked him, weeping for the poor sailors. But Prospero told her all about what had happened when she and he were younger, and claimed that this ship was his brother Antonio’s. He said he certainly was not going to harm any people, only to frighten them and make them come to this island with his magical wand, and thence he could befriend them once more, and they could go back to Naples, and he would have his dukedom, and Miranda would have her royalty.
A few hours later, and the sailors did arrive at this island, not knowing the other was still alive and henceforth crying for help. One of these was the king’s son Ferdinand, who fell in love with Miranda, and they later on married. Gonzalo found Prospero once more, and they rejoiced to see each other. Antonio, disappointed though he was, befriended his brother again, and gave him his dukedom. Caliban was made king of the island, what he had desired for a long time, and Ariel was set free.