Magic Storms on Polish Television: The Case of The Tempest

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to look at the representation of the storm in selected television versions of Shakespeare's The Tempest . Special attention will be paid to Polish TV productions in the context of other film and telegenic renderings of the play. Of course, the specific nature of the tragicomedy and the position of the sea storm and shipwreck in particular will be a starting point for the discussion of how television aesthetics shapes the representation of storms on the small screen. The following questions will be posited: whether the teleplay draws more on the filmic codes or theatre-oriented ones; what the place of television genres is and how they inform the framing of storms; how the genres relate to the nature of the storms in Shakespeare's (Last) plays. Consequently, one needs to address the unnatural, supernatural and oneiric nature of Shakespeare's Last Plays as well as the status of Prospero's art that make the storm a magic phenomenon, yet one which - in the eyes of Miranda as well as the characters aboard the ship - appears a most realistic, indeed tangibly real element. This leads to the problem of realism in the triad of stage-television-film which will need to be addressed, too: how the producers managed to render this double nature of the reception of the storm by the characters in the play.

Meaningless acts: migratory aesthetics in Krzysztof Warlikowski's and Paweł Miśkiewicz's dystopian adaptations of The Tempest

“…In this production, the power of Prospero is spent already at the beginning: for almost the entire length of the staging Adam Ferency remains seated at an empty table, an image of irresolution and lack of will to live. Caliban, Ariel, and Miranda are all caught in the prison of Prospero's dysfunctional vision of family life and are equally resigned to their fates (FABISZAK and BRZOZOWSKA 2011). Ariel is a spirit caught in the prison of their own gender-fluid body and dies once granted freedom by their unloving master; Caliban speaks only broken Polish, with a German accent lending an eerie, haunting quality to his ragings and complaints: 'this crippled slave-speak was a visible sign that Prospero has failed' (PAWŁOWSKI 2003: 187).…”