New York: The words “naked” and “Shakespeare” are not usually the first words people associate when contemplating the work of England’s most famous playwright, but that’s exactly what one New York theatre group have done, creating an all nude staging of The Tempest.
To mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, women from the Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society decided to go for something unique when staging his final play, and putting it on while naked is certainly that, the RT online reported.
The group say they chose The Tempest because of its “central themes of alienation and reconciliation” and used nudity to show the difference between the shipwreck victims “initially forced to navigate the play’s island setting in constricting outfits suggestive of European aristocracy,” in contrast to the openness and “naked innocence” of Miranda and her father.
“We want the audience to see it through fresh eyes, as ‘something rich and strange,’ the way an audience four hundred years ago would have,” said director Alice Mottola.