In her new dance piece, based on motifs from Shakespeareʼs The Tempest, Crystal Pite stages a game of revenge and forgiveness, reality and imagination. Pite explores these motifs in two contexts: a maquette of Shakespeareʼs island as a metaphor for isolation, captivity and desire, and a nostalgic cityscape that evokes longing. Chalk-white replicas deliver the essential plot points of the story, but the emotion and tension of the narrative are fleshed out by real characters. To explore and demonstrate this duplication of character and copy, the story and the body, requires something incomparably precious: the mastery and articulation of the dancer.
The Tempest Replica
Duration
280 minutes
Created by
Crystal Pite
Composer
Owen Belton
Sound Design
Alessandro Juliani, Meg Roe
Scenic Design
Jay Gower Taylor
Visual Design
Jamie Nesbitt
Costume Design
Nancy Bryant
Lighting Design
Robert Sondergaard
Cast
Bryan Arias, Eric Beauchesne, Peter Chu, Sandra Marín Garcia, Yannick Matthon, Jiří Pokorný, Cindy Salgado, Jermaine Maurice Spivey
Reviews
“NOTES FROM CRYSTAL PITE
The Tempest Replica presents Shakespeareʼs play in two parallel worlds. Firstly, the play is represented as an on-stage storyboard, with the plot points of the narrative delivered minimally, through the gestures, postures, and configurations of the faceless body inside a maquette-like space. Secondly, the play is explored through a series of portraits – the characters and relationships from The Tempest are manifested through fierce physical language and emotion.
My hope for the viewer is that, armed with the plot points of a narrative, he or she is more deeply invested in the performance: the choreography becomes more than just a dance between two people – rather, it is imbued with a story we have all shared.
The themes of Shakespeareʼs The Tempest are resonant and beautiful. A magician bent on revenge, ultimately decides to choose virtue over vengeance, relinquishing his power and ambition in order to find his humanity. Prosperoʼs relationship to his muse, Ariel, and his monster, Caliban, is the relationship of any creator to his work, passion, obsession. The relationships between the civilized and the wild echo the tension between the conscious and the unconscious, the instinct and the intellect. The Island, like the mind, is a place of mystery, spirit and ego.”
Header image by Jörg Baumann
