Director
Derek Jarman

Cast
Alonso, King of Naples: Peter Bull
Ferdinand: David Meyer
Sebastian: Neil Cunningham
Prospero, Duke of Milan: Heathcote Williams
Miranda: Toyah Willcox
Antonio: Richard Warwick
Ariel: Karl Johnson
Caliban: Jack Birkett
Stephano: Christopher Biggins
Trinculo: Peter Turner
Gonzalo: Ken Campbell
Goddess: Elisabeth Welch
Sycorax: Claire Davenport
Young Miranda: Kate Temple
A spirit: Helen Wellington-Lloyd
A spirit: Angela Whittingham

Unsurprisingly, Derek Jarman was just one of a handful of directors who have made film adaptations of Shakespeare's late play. Unlike Hamlet or Macbeth, The Tempest's incendiary combination of fantastic plot, themes including power, authority, imperialism, magic, and its potentially costly special effects have made it one of the least-performed of Shakespeare's plays. In characteristic style however, Derek Jarman flew in the face of convention not only by producing this neglected play, but also in his methods of doing so: he edits out large chunks of the dialogue, leaving the viewer to rely merely on the haunting imagery to piece together the narrative.

Astonishingly however, despite having removed most of Shakespeare's words, Jarman's film was hailed as one of the most successful adaptations of the Bard's works by several Shakespeare scholars.

Saturated in rich colour and atmospherically lit throughout, this is restrained Jarman at his best, making full use of his technical knowledge to produce breathtaking visuals, without imposing his own agenda upon it. Using the punk sensibility of the time, he does however employ the undertones of closeted gay society, with Prospero and Ariel prisoners on their dark island, trapped in a fantasy realm of signs and codes.

The star of the piece though, is Miranda. Played with panache by Toyah Willcox, that wild child of the punk era, she wanders the halls of Prospero's fortress, outrageously costumed in a stunning combination of period and punk tatters as she draws strangers into her home while longing for freedom. A far cry from the chaste and maidenly girl of Shakespeare's original, this Miranda is a feisty, buxom, sexual young woman who, instead of Prospero, herself appears to be the magician at the heart of the tempest.

Shot on location at Stoneleigh Abbey, Jarman's film creates a dreamlike world within each room that is lushly lit and decadent in its wasteful decay. As the tale progresses, Prospero's illusions become false realities, culminating in the famous climactic scene: a sumptous red and gold wedding feast that features a Busby Berkeley-like performance of sailors dancing as Elisabeth Welch sings Stormy Weather.