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Michael Stewart Allen's performance of Caliban brought out the richness and complexity of the character, without reducing him to a crude stereotype - which is a direction that other, less talented actors may have chosen to go in. Rather than overacting, Allen's subtle approach effectively affirms the many ambiguities of Caliban's character that Shakespeare leaves open in his text. Despite the rich poetic lines and monologues that Shakespeare has given Caliban, the fact remains that he does not get to speak very often in the course of the play - especially when compared to Prospero, who seems to be speaking all the time. This ambiguity is exploited in the scene when Caliban affirms that he indeed attempted to rape Miranda, and would have if he had been able to, in order to populate the
... Allen does not allow for Caliban to seem sympathetic to the audience, as indeed he should not. At the same time, in his wonderful rendering of Caliban's monologues, he makes it clear to us that Caliban is more than simply a mere beast.
Reading the text of the Tempest and watching a contemporary interpretation of it, one definitely gets the sense that Caliban occupies an ambiguous space in Shakespeare's world. Only by unraveling the clues left by the author can a contemporary reader of the text gain insight into what Caliban was meant to symbolize in the world of the play.
Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Retrieved 10 March 2008 at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html.
Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Retrieved 10 March 2008 at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html.
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