The Tempest Sells Out its run on the Golden Hinde
Earlier this year, I was asked to adapt The Tempest for The Golden Hinde, a replica of Francis Drake's ship which is currently resting in a dry dock by the Thames. Shakespeare knew the original Hinde and was inspired by some of its adventures. The opening storm scene happens on a ship - how cool to immerse an audience in that setting for real!
My adaptation was narrated by Ariel who told the story as he remembered it. This gave a logic to the cuts: we were hearing the bits that Ariel thought were most important. For the spirits, The Tempest is the story of how they won their freedom and I gave Ariel and Caliban a version of the metatheatrical epilogue which usually belongs to Prospero. We played on the idea of the Hinde as a vessel which was 'vital to the history of our island,' and Ariel's narration between scenes also helped the audience know where to go, where to sit, and what was happening as they were guided around the ship.
Site-specific theatre raises lots of challenges. The ship is a museum during the day and is hired out privately at night so we were only given a handful of rehearsals slotted around its schedule. We nearly lost one when a corporate hire took the date but were luckily able to find another free day when our cast was available. We were told that some smaller theatrical productions, one man shows and the like, had performed poorly in the past, so the Hinde was reticent about giving us too much time in the calendar.
Originally we had a producer who was part of The Golden Hinde team but unfortunately they stopped working for the ship just before the project was announced as part of the Totally Thames Festival. Without that support and behind-the-scenes access, we had to scale back a lot of our ambitions and just concentrate on getting it on its feet. Our complex six-person play - seventy minutes of Shakespeare whizzing between decks and cabins - had just eighteen hours of rehearsal time and a budget of £0. We borrowed props and costumes from the ship's education team and relied on the talent of our wonderful cast to bring the play to life at lightning speed.
Despite these stormy seas, the performances were a much bigger success than we anticipated. We sold out over a month in advance and even after we squeezed more tickets onto every show we still had a long wait-list of people who wanted to come. Callie and I treated this run as a strong proof of concept, and we now have an excellent sales record, some beautiful footage and lots of wonderful quotes from reviewers to package up and pitch to other historic vessels in the future who might be able to provide a bit more time, space, and producing support.
We're keen to do the show again but if we do - to quote another great story set at sea - we're gonna need a bigger boat!
Praise for the Show
"This semi-immersive production is a fun and highly successful endeavour, breathing new life into this sea-shanty tale of revenge, control and love. Adaptor Rebekah King captures the magic of the sprite Ariel, skilfully trimming the epic piece down to an hour-long text while maintaining its most crucial plot threads and scenes, and you never feel short-changed." West End Best Friend
"King’s boldest and most interesting move is telling the tale from the servants’ perspective. Much of the courtly scheming is stripped back. What remains is the island seen through the eyes of those bound to Prospero’s will. This makes a familiar play feel newly strange...Inventive, playful and full of salt air, this is Shakespeare with its sea legs on. A museum piece has been turned into a playground for one of the Bard’s most magical tales." The Spy in the Stalls
"The Golden Hinde is, of course, the main character. It is the perfect setting for The Tempest. Its cramped wooden decks instantly create the maritime atmosphere. We were able to move through the ship with the performers as the story unfolded which was such a unique opportunity too. It made the show even more immersive." Notes from Row H
"The atmospheric historic vessel is a fitting home for Rebekah King’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Tempest which has been prepared as a site-specific production using many spaces both inside and on top of the boat – transforming it into Prospero’s island and intimately immersing audiences in the story...a play written in the same era as that original boat makes for a genuine celebration of the boat, the area and the words of Shakespeare. This is the Totally Thames Festival doing exactly what it’s meant to: reminding us of the river’s history, importance and culture." Red Bus Londinium
"The iconic replica Elizabethan galleon is a perfect setting for this Tempest, creating a unique immersive and intimate experience." Everything Theatre
"Excellently immersive and superbly fun, this abridged version is enhanced by an authenticity that is frankly incomparable to almost any other staging available to the Bard’s final play" A Youngish Perspective
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