Adaptation Process

Director and Adapter Matthew Olsen gives us insight into his script adaptation process. 

When I began the process of adaptation it went through many varied iterations. I was initially inspired by The Wreck of the Sea Venture (a likely candidate for Shakespeare’s inspiration). The Sea Venture was a ship that crashed in Bermuda and was ultimately salvaged into two new ships. The Deliverance and The Patience. In the scene breakdown you’ll find that the Prologue is called The Deliverance and Epilogue is called The Patience. That is mostly all that remains...

Here is the original Prologue from an early rough draft of the play:

PROLOGUE:  The Deliverance

Devised/played by the Ensemble:  a ceremony, a remembering, a summoning. A shared staff, like a conch shell is passed as roles are revealed.

You are…

I am…

With growing excitement and velocity, together they BUILD the world.

ENSEMBLE {divided} Now, now, now. 

Attend and mark—our great Deliverance, 

from a mighty storm we do set this stage, 

from which the gale did divide us. 

Whence we were forced ashore, by reasons, 

(known and unknown)

Still, still, still. 

The Ghosts of poets walk within this place,

And haunt us Actors wheresoe’re we pass.

But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraisèd spirits that do dare

On this unworthy ballast to bring forth

So great a tale. 

And let us, channels to this great account,

On your imaginary currents work.

We do remember by fate and fear. 

We weave in memory and honour here. 

Our tale to hear, ourselves to share. 

ALL What’s past is Prologue. What is to come—

Prospero appears, staff in hand, perhaps a book, and a medallion (**think** the head to the staff of Ra from Raiders of the Lost Ark). A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning is heard. The TEMPEST builds.

PROSPERO {a spell} Fair is foul, and foul is fair;

Violence through fog and salty air.

Thou, Ocean, the receiver, swell

Deliver to this island by my spell.

Prospero and Ariel (aloft) weave a fantastic storm. Caliban enters unseen.

CALIBAN {aside}   This island’s mine by Sycorax, my Mother.

I have no other. I am like no other. 

I am myself alone.

And as it exists in the rehearsal draft for the production: 

PROLOGUE:  The Deliverance

A single light. Prospero appears. Alone? Staff in hand, perhaps a book, a ram’s horn slung over their shoulder. They see/sea into the distance…A summoning begins…

PROSPERO Now, my rough magic!

Lights shift. A low hum begins.

PROSPERO Now, my potent art!

The hum grows and the sound of a storm in the distance.

PROSPERO Now, my airy charm!

The storm builds. Flashes of light and sound of waves crashing.

PROSPERO Now, now, now, My Ariel, approach!

They appear.

ARIEL/SPIRITS All hail, Prospero! Grave soul, hail!

{a spell} Fair is foul, and foul is fair;

Violence through fog and salty air.

Thou, Ocean, the receiver, swell

Deliver to this island by my spell.

The summoning grows, the TEMPEST builds. It is great and wondrous magic. 

A tempestuous music of thunder and lightning is heard and felt.

PROSPERO This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,

Why hath it given occasion

Bestowed in this storm? 

If good, why do I yield to this suggestion

Whose daring act doth unnerve my wit

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs

Against the use of magic? Present fears–

Are less than horrible imaginings.

My proposition, that yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of mind

That my thoughts, with my knowing, are at odds,

And nothing is but what is not.

What’s past is Prologue. What’s to come—

A frozen moment. Now…A presence. 

CALIBAN   This island’s mine by Sycorax, my Mother.

I have no other. I am like no other. 

I am myself alone.

Suddenly a ship constructs around Prospero, they see it from a deep distance. They are untouched by the destruction. It is a fantastic storm.

Prospero doesn’t have a monologue or a prologue in the original Tempest. I wanted to add something that lets us into the Prospero’s mind and the Tempest they are already navigating, literal and figurative. So, I borrowed from the best. Shakespeare. The monologue you see above is an altered version of a speech from Macbeth (Act 1, Sc.3). Google it if you’d like to compare! I liked the imagery and felt it could be bent to fit this moment. 

Caliban, in the original text doesn’t appear in the opening of the play but it was important to me to give them a voice in concert with the voice of Prospero. If you’re a Shakespeare lover, or a Tempest aficionado then you’ll know this text doesn’t exist in Shakespeare’s play, well, not this one anyway. The above text originates in one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays Henry VI pt. 3 (Act 5, Sc. 6). 

Another moment in the play that I wanted to explore was allowing the actors to devise a Shipwreck/Tempest as an Ensemble. An excerpt of the original text reads as follows:

Scene 1

A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.

Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.

MASTER

  Boatswain!

BOATSWAIN

 Here, master. What cheer?

MASTER

 Good, speak to th’ mariners. Fall to ’t yarely,

 or we run ourselves aground. Bestir, bestir!

He exits.

Enter Mariners.

BOATSWAIN

 Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my

 hearts! Yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th’

 Master’s whistle.—Blow till thou burst thy wind, if

 room enough!

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others.

ALONSO

 Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the Master?

 Play the men.

BOATSWAIN

 I pray now, keep below.

ANTONIO

Where is the Master, boatswain?

BOATSWAIN

 Do you not hear him? You mar our labor.

 Keep your cabins. You do assist the storm.

GONZALO

  Nay, good, be patient.

BOATSWAIN

 When the sea is. Hence! What cares these

 roarers for the name of king? To cabin! Silence!

 Trouble us not.

GONZALO

 Good, yet remember whom thou hast

 Aboard.

BOATSWAIN  

 None that I more love than myself. You are

 a councillor; if you can command these elements

 to silence, and work the peace of the present, we

 will not hand a rope more. Use your authority. If

 you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and

 make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance

 of the hour, if it so hap.—Cheerly, good

 hearts!—Out of our way, I say!

I knew that for our production I needed to cut down this scene and build a different kind of shipwreck. Below is how it appears in the rehearsal draft: 

The ship–wrecks, it splits, it breaks, all are lost to Neptunes depths…

As a Shakespeare nerd and lover of Romeo & Juliet, I have always been inspired and moved by the shared Sonnet that exists in that play. If you’re familiar with R & J it occurs in Act 1, Sc. 5. It reads as follows:

ROMEO

 If I profane with my unworthiest hand

 This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

 My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

 To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET

 Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

 Which mannerly devotion shows in this;

 For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,

 And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

ROMEO

 Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET

 Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO

 O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

 They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET

 Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.

ROMEO

 Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.

The Tempest originally has a scene full of spirits and magic that primarily speaks to the virtues of virginity, maidenhood, and fertility. I decided I wanted it to resemble a wedding. A binding. A sharing. I took another one of Shakespeare’s famous Sonnets (Sonnet #116) and created a shared scene/dialogue between Prospero, Miranda, and Ferdinand. I knew I wanted all three of them to be present for the creation of the moment. It went through a variety of iterations but ultimately it resembles the shared sonnet of Romeo & Juliet. 

The Sonnets themselves are not considered performance texts. But, I have always found that their rhythm and unique nature makes for a unique performance exercise. 

Here is how Sonnet 116 appears in the rehearsal draft for this production:

The Wedding. A Blessing. A Sharing. Paper Crowns. Binding Fabrics. 

PROSPERO Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments; love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds

Or bends with the remover to remove.

FERDINAND O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

MIRANDA It is the star to every wand'ring bark

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

FERDINAND Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come.

MIRANDA Love alters not with his brief hours 

FERDINAND and weeks,

MIRANDA But bears it out even to the edge 

FERDINAND       of dusk.

MIRANDA If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ– 

FERDINAND nor no man ever loved.

A moment. A kind of magic. A solidifying of the bond.

I chose this particular sonnet because of its Tempest/Storm imagery. It resonated for me to have Ferdinand speak the text “that looks on tempests and is never shaken” because of how shaken Ferdinand is by the loss of his Father. When Ferdinand meets Miranda he then becomes “fixed”. He finds footing. He is grounded. He is home. 

Love is the undercurrent of this play. It is what erodes Prospero’s anger, resentment, fear, and hate. I can’t imagine a better way to learn that lesson than to share a sonnet with his child and her chosen partner.