Caliban

Shakespeare's Shadows

featuring interviews with actor Michael Blake, Pilobolus choreographers Matt Kent and Renée Jaworski, and SUNY New Paltz professor Matthieu Chapman

A Shakespeare play that can be at turns heartwarming and troubling, “The Tempest” features two major characters who don’t look like the humans around them: Caliban and Ariel. Caliban, repeatedly described as “monstrous” by other characters, is enslaved by Prospero, the play’s protagonist. This episode delves into discussion about post-colonial interpretations of this play written in the early 17th century, about the significance of Caliban’s mother being a witch from Algiers, and about varying approaches to “The Tempest” theme of choosing forgiveness over revenge and the question of whether Caliban’s ending is one with reconciliation.

Guests on this episode are:

• Matt Kent (he/him) and Renée Jaworski (she/her), artistic directors of the acclaimed modern dance company Pilobolus. They crafted the choreography for “The Tempest” directed by Aaron Posner and Teller (of Penn and Teller), a stage production that depicts Caliban as a two-headed creature played by two performers

• Michael Blake (he/him), who played Caliban for the Stratford Festival in 2018, among his nine seasons at the Stratford, Ontario festival. Michael is currently portraying the Player in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” opposite Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.

• Dr. Matthieu Chapman (he/him), a theatre studies professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz whose publications include the books “Anti-Black Racism in Early Modern English Drama” and “Shattered: Fragments of a Black Life.”

This episode contains discussion of slavery, racial violence, involuntary intoxication, and an accusation of rape.

To view photos and video footage of the performances crafted by Pilobolus and by Michael Blake, visit shakespearesshadows.com/caliban-video