Abstract
When Danny Boyle's “Isles of Wonder” advocated Shakespeare's status as the world's playwright at the London 2012 Olympics, borrowings from The Tempest received mixed reviews. James Shapiro – writer and presenter of the three-part series The King and the Playwright: A Jacobean History which kick-started the BBC's “Shakespeare Unlocked” season – questioned the choice of Caliban's speech, which, in the context of Shakespeare's play-text, sees this half-man, half-beast native of the island plotting to kill his colonist ruler, Prospero: “Why you would choose Caliban's lines as, in a sense, a kind of anthem for the Olympics, I'm not sure […] I guess they wanted to rip them out of context and talk about how magical a place the British Isles are” (qtd in Florek). This certainly proved to be the case. With Kenneth Branagh delivering his lines while dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Timothy Spall popping out of Big Ben to recite Shakespeare in the guise of Winston Churchill, Caliban's tale of “a thousand twangling instruments” (3.2.140) was now being used to tell the story of British history. And so was Shakespeare.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
