The Tempest

Twelve years ago, Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, was overthrown by his treacherous brother Antonio and set adrift with his infant daughter Miranda. Washed up on a remote island, he has mastered its magic, commanding the airy spirit Ariel and enslaving the resentful Caliban. When a ship carrying his enemies passes nearby, Prospero conjures a tempest to wreck it and bring them into his power at last.

As the survivors wander the island, Prospero orchestrates their fates: a budding romance between Miranda and the shipwrecked prince Ferdinand, a comic plot among drunken servants, and a murderous conspiracy among the nobles. All of it moves toward a single question, whether Prospero will take his revenge or choose forgiveness.

Believed to be among the last plays Shakespeare wrote alone, The Tempest is a luminous late romance about power, art, colonization, and letting go. Rich with music, spectacle, and some of his most quoted lines, it ends with a meditation on mercy and the surrender of the magician's staff.