{"id":268774,"date":"2026-08-20T10:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/268774\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T10:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:58:32","slug":"exploring-the-source-material-and-humanity-in-the-tempest-in-its-final-pittsburgh-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/268774\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the source material and humanity in ‘The Tempest’ in its final Pittsburgh week"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is WESA Arts, a weekly newsletter by Bill O’Driscoll providing in-depth reporting about the Pittsburgh area art scene.\u00a0Sign up here to get it every Wednesday afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the final week of Quantum Theatre\u2019s production of \u201cThe Tempest\u201d at the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark. That also makes it Act V, Scene V in the career of Quantum\u2019s visionary founder and artistic director Karla Boos, who\u2019s retiring this year.<\/p>\n

That swan song, plus the spectacular site-specific staging of Shakespeare\u2019s final play against an iconic backdrop of post-industrial Pittsburgh, are pretty good reasons to catch this show. So is Jeffrey Carpenter\u2019s commanding lead performance as Prospero, the deposed and exiled statesman who uses magic to wreak bitter vengeance on those who have wronged him. (If you haven\u2019t seen it, apologies: All five remaining performances are sold out.)<\/p>\n

For me, the production also calls to mind the arguments over Christopher Nolan\u2019s blockbuster film \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d and all the ways he deviated from the source material.<\/p>\n

The plays of Shakespeare have for decades been subject to imaginative, even delirious stagings, from Orson Welles costuming \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d to summon 1930s fascism to the film \u201cScotland, Pa.\u201d resetting \u201cMacbeth\u201d in a small-town fast-food restaurant. Roles have been gender-swapped so often that no one bats an eye when the sympathetic state official Gonzalo is recast as a woman, as in Quantum\u2019s \u201cTempest.\u201d<\/p>\n

And consider Caliban, the \u201cmonster\u201d Prospero has enslaved on the island where the play is set.<\/p>\n

Though ultimately sympathetic, Caliban was once traditionally portrayed as a misshapen being, and even as various animals. Prospero says he is \u201cnot honored with \/ A human shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

But starting in the 20th century, scholars note he\u2019s often depicted as a symbol of colonized indigenous societies, one whose rightful dominion was usurped by an imperialist wizard. (In 1611, when \u201cThe Tempest\u201d debuted, the British had only begun to explore the \u201cbrave new world\u201d<\/a> of the Americas and battle its native inhabitants, and they were just a few years from bringing the first enslaved Africans here.)<\/p>\n

In Shakespeare, the main clue to Caliban\u2019s appearance is the derogatory way other characters describe him. But in most productions nowadays, Caliban is portrayed not as malformed at all, but fully human. Director Boos, in fact, told WESA that she means the character, as portrayed by Jerreme Rodriguez, to be beautiful<\/a> \u2014 turning the descriptions of him into egregious and self-serving misrepresentations.<\/p>\n

Perhaps changing times \u2014 whether in the 400 years since Shakespeare last wrote, or in the 2,500 or so since Homer set down \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d \u2014 can justify or even demand new renderings of classic characters?<\/p>\n

Still, my favorite moment in Quantum\u2019s \u201cTempest,\u201d which I caught last week beneath skies threatening rain, was the climactic exchange between Prospero and Ariel, the spirit who is also his slave.<\/p>\n

Ariel, as played by Pittsburgh legend Tom\u00e9 Cousin, is reporting to Prospero on how potent his revenge has proven.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour charm so strongly works \u2019em \/ That if you now beheld them, your affections \/ Would become tender,\u201d says Ariel.<\/p>\n

\u201cDost thou think so, spirit?\u201d says Prospero.<\/p>\n

\u201cMine would, sir, were I human.\u201d<\/p>\n

There follows a long pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd mine shall,\u201d responds Prospero at last. \u201cHast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling \/ Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, \/ One of their kind, that relish all as sharply \/ Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?\u201d<\/p>\n

In that pause \u2014 a powerful man self-consciously reckoning with the humanity he has long suppressed \u2014 perhaps dwells the entire play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is WESA Arts, a weekly newsletter by Bill O’Driscoll providing in-depth reporting about the Pittsburgh area art…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-268774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}