islandhippy

Ariel played by Atandwa Kani (photo taken from the RSC website)

I'm back in England for London Book Fair and was very lucky to be invited to see a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest in association with South Africa's Baxter Theatre Centre. I'd never read The Tempest before but it translated well to a South African setting. The island setting mirrored apartheid South Africa with a white Prospero and a black Caliban asserting "This island's mine", and the play was full of African ritual, music and dance with stunning puppetry. Definitely recommended.

Bizarre fact: I was seated in the second row of the stalls next to a lady who, I soon discovered, had been my sister Holly's piano teacher at primary school!