(The Tempest by William Hogarth, The Yorck Project, Wikimedia Commons)
On New Year’s Eve this year I got to see a performance of The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC. In this, one of the last of Shakespeare’s plays (perhaps the last, but that’s a tough thing to determine), Prospero is a grand duke, ousted from Milan by his scheming brother (and because Prospero paid no attention to his governing business, being addicted to the study of magic). Prospero lands with his daughter Miranda on an enchanted isle. He controls two beings on the isle, a man and a spirit, and whiles away 12 years. But the approach of a ship bearing his mortal enemies gives him a chance enact revenge and reclaim his title. Magical hijinks ensue. You can read the plot here.
After the production, I have been struck by an idea for a new interpretation: The Tempest as Academia.
Prospero is a department head at an ivy-covered institution. But he becomes wrapped up in obscure and currently unfundable work. A coup ousts him as head of the department, and casts him and his young PhD student Miranda at a small liberal arts college. While there he terrorizes the facilities head, Caliban, and gains a postdoc, Ariel, who works in his obscure area but really needs a high-profile paper to be free to pursue her own dreams.
The high-profile professor, Antonio, who ousted Prospero from the ivies becomes stuck on the island after a Tempest destroys the van he and Alonso, the head of their field’s funding agency, were using to get back from an obscure Gordon conference, to which Prospero was not invited. With them was Ferdinand, Alonso’s young protege, the emeritus professor Gonzalo, Alonso’s deputy head, Sebastian, and some other young prof that no one can be bothered to remember. The young grad students, Trinculo and Stephano, are stranded elsewhere.
Prospero enacts his revenge. Alonso, Antonio and the professors wander about the small liberal arts college, dazed and unsure, terrified of the wild, partying undergrads. Antonio and Sebastian plot to oust Alonso, to fulfill Sebastian’s dreams of power and Antonio’s wish for a program grant. Ferdinand meets Miranda, and is thrilled at first sight with her innovative work. He swears immediately to fund her. Meanwhile, Caliban leads the young grad students, drunk with the outcome of their first conference, in a merry dance about the college. All this is facilitated and overheard by Ariel, who is an unwilling slave to her master’s wishes. Prospero prompts her actions constantly by swearing that he will submit her paper and free her. “I’ll publish thee for this!” Hijinks ensue.
In the end, Prospero brings all the separated academics together. In a final meeting in the conference room, he tells Alonso all that has passed, and the results of his latest research. Alonso is amazed, and, finding that his and Miranda’s work has reached a stage where you could make long-term arguments about its translatability, restores to him his funding. The other professors invite Prospero back to the ivy-covered institution. Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed, with Miranda in the midst of a presentation of her data and innovative new technique. The professors are immediately enraptured with her work. All are pleased to see each other, and the professors continue on their merry way back home. Prospero contemplates leaving the life of a liberal arts college for his former life, and swears to focus on grant writing in future. As a symbol of his new dedication to the R01 game, he submits Ariel’s paper to Nature. Ariel, freed by a publication to put on her CV as “in prep,” Leaves academia entirely and is never heard from again.
