Detroiters are always going to find a way to infuse Motor City culture into everything. Take, for example, Shakespeare in Detroit’s latest adaptation of The Tempest, which celebrates the magic of techno.
It follows the original story of a magician named Prospero who was exiled to an island by his brother with only his daughter, a spirit named Ariel, and a monster called Caliban by his side. But in this version, Prospero is a former DJ and host of a popular dance show. His character is loosely based on Detroit techno pioneer Juan Atkins, with the dance show being a nod to Detroit’s iconic 1990s-era series The New Dance Show. Instead of wielding a magic staff, Prospero’s spells come from a synthesizer and turntables, and his occult books from the original play are now vinyl records.
When a storm sees Prospero’s enemies shipwrecked on the island, he uses his magic and the island spirits to attack them. Three of those spirits are dancers representing Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. And Instead of Juno, Iris, and Ceres, the goddesses that appear in this adaptation are popular dancers from The New Dance Show Lawanda, Keke, and Yvonne. The play also includes a live DJ.
The Tempest is part of Shakespeare in Detroit’s Classical Theatre Festival taking place at Campus Martius on Aug. 11-13 and 18-20. The festival is completely free to attend and also includes youth performances of Macbeth on Aug. 11 and 12 at 2 p.m. Performances of The Tempest start at 7:30 p.m. each day.
For more information, see shakespeareindetroit.com.
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