The story opens in 2013 at a production of The Tempest by the Fletcher Correctional Players, the culmination of the latest course run at the prison by the English teacher, Mr Duke. It then rewinds thirteen years to when Mr Duke, then known as Felix Phillips, was the renowned lead actor and artistic director of the prestigious Makeshiweg Festival.
Felix is on a professional high, set to deliver a ground-breaking production of The Tempest, a project he has thrown himself into following personal tragedy – the death of his wife in childbirth and within three years the loss of his daughter (Miranda, naturally) to meningitis. This will be a tribute to them. However, the show is pulled, and he is ousted from his job by his more-than-able lieutenant, Tony Price, who takes over, usurps even, the role.
Felix, bereft of purpose, drifts away, goes off-grid, eventually re-inventing himself as Mr Duke. He gets a job in the education service at the local prison, establishing an acting class, which is surprisingly successful. So successful that the new Minister for Culture, one Tony Price, is coming to visit. An opportunity for revenge! thinks Felix.
The clever parallels
to Shakespeare’s Tempest are deftly worked, while the play within the play
gives scope for exploration of its themes (and their linkage to Felix). There
is more, much more than can be outlined here, to admire and enjoy in this
re-telling of the Bard’s play, written as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare
project.
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