THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare - Final Performance, Play Introduction at 19:30

Prospero, a scholar who neglected his duties as Duke of Milan to pursue study and the arts, was deposed by his brother, cast adrift at sea with his young daughter Miranda, and washed ashore on an island. Like many of Shakespeare's enchanted landscapes, the island becomes an experimental ground and playground for its arrivals. A place where humanity, far from civilization, can begin anew: the power and powerlessness of human reason in contest with nature, of which it is part. And all this against the dark backdrop of colonization.

In The Tempest, all of Shakespeare's great themes converge once more. With the help of the air spirit Ariel, Prospero conjures a storm that brings all his enemies - his treacherous brother and his allies - as shipwrecked castaways under his power, allowing him to evade the murderous plot of the poetic monster Caliban. Miranda, who has seen little of the world beyond the island, falls in love with one of the castaways: Ferdinand, Prince of Naples. If Prospero, who also acts as director of his own past and future, were to renounce his revenge, the island romance would be a first step toward universal reconciliation.

Shakespeare's thirty-seventh and final play, in its poetic playfulness, hunger for discovery, rawness, and tender melancholy, is also a legacy and farewell from one of the greatest theatrical minds.

The Tempest is performed in a version celebrated at the Burgtheater Vienna, directed by Joachim Lux, with three actors who embody multiple roles - a production in which Joachim Meyerhoff also appeared.
Performing are Johanna Engel, Christina Weiser - who will join the permanent ensemble of the Zimmertheater next season from Staatstheater Kassel - and Bernhard Hurm from Theater Lindenhof.

Prospero/ Bernhard Hurm
Trincolo

Ariel/ Christina Weiser
Ferdinand/
Stef