A Tempest

Tempest, A (Une tempête)

    Author: Aimé Césaire

    First Performance: 1969, Hammamet, Tunisia

    Published: 1969

    First English Translation: 1985

    Genre: Com. in 3 acts; French prose

    Setting: An island, indeterminate period

    Cast: 15m, 1f

This ‘adaptation for a black theatre’ follows the main lines of Shakespeare's plot, but there are significant changes. The translation simplifies and shortens the original. Ariel is a resentful mulatto. Caliban is a rebellious black slave, who has been taught Prospero's language only so that he can understand his orders and who asks to be called X, since Prospero has stolen his identity. In a specially written scene, Ariel and Caliban argue about modes of resistance: Ariel pleads for non-violence; Caliban calls him an Uncle Tom and demands ‘Freedom...

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