“What brave new world that has such people in it!”

That line that you just read (I’m assuming) that is a line from the Tempest. A play by William Shakespeare. Be for warned that I will be quoting the play throughout the post. The point of this unit was to a) read the Tempest b) learn about New France and Colonialism and c) after having done both of those things, be divided into different groups, take the main points out of each act of the tempest and then set in in New France and compare it to Tempest. The final goal was to create a tableau of us showing the scenes set in New France of the Tempest. A tableau is like a real life picture, where everyone on stage is frozen and you sometimes have a narrator explaining what’s going on.

I’m going to cover the following:

– What we learnt I.e. summing it up

– The research leading up to the BIG ONE .

And…..

– The creation of the Big One

 

What we learnt/did:

So we mostly focused (as I said) on New France and on the Tempest.

Lets start off with a recap of what actually happened in the Tempest.

In the 1st act there is a ship that is sinking with the king onboard. Eventually they get beached on an island. They (the men on board) think the storm that caused the ship wreck was an accident. It was not. There is a man on the island, who’s name is Prospero, and he is causing the storm with his powers. Coz he’s a magician. Turns out Prospero meant to make them get shipwrecked. Why? Well his brother is aboard that ship and you see, his brother screwed him over! Prospero used to be the Duke of Milan, and his brother kicked him out and sent him to sea. Prospero landed on that island and he intentionally shipwrecked the voyagers. Now here comes another Character, her name is Miranda. She is Prosero’s daughter. So after she figures out that he meant to crash the ship, she gets real worried and asks him why? And then he tells her about the whole getting his dukedom taken away and all that. The last part of this act is Miranda finding some dude named Ferdinand, who is Prospero’s evil brother’s son, on the island after the ship sank. She falls madly in love with him, after having talked to him for 2 seconds. Because that’s the first guy, other than her dad that she’s ever seen.

The ship sinking

Prospero (Played by Helen Miren) sinking the ship

Ferdinand getting lead towards Prospero and Miranda

In act 2 we meet Antonio and Sebastian. They work for the King (I.e. Prosperos snake brother). So they’ve been wondering around the island for a bit and than they get sleepy. They only really get sleepy because Prosperos magical servant, oh yes I forgot to mention the island was full of a bunch of faery types, puts them to Sleep. So, the King and his servant Gonzalo dose off, so while they sleep Antonio gets convinced by Sebastian that it would be a good idea to kill the King so that Antonio who is related to the King, could become King. Luckily Prospero’s servant-spirit, Ariel, wakes them up. So they’re not dead. Okay time to get even more confusioned. There is this monster like thing on the island who is enslaved by Prospero. His name is Caliban. His mother was Sycorax, a witch whom used to live on the island but that Prospero got rid off. Caliban is looking for some wood to start a fire for Prospero when he sees a very drunk man, who had been aboard the ship that sunk. So he hides under a blanket. Just as you do. And this dudes name is Trinculo, Trinuclo sees a storm coming and hides under Calibans blanket. It gets really funny from there. Anyway so this other drunk fool  finds those two under the blanket but after some confusion sorts them out. Turns out him and Trinculo were friends. So they give alcohol to Caliban, who has never had any and Caliban pledges his service to them.

Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano getting drunk

In act 3 we return to Ferdinand and Miranda who are in love and about to get married, which Prospero has secretly been planning. Than we move onto Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban who are super drunk, Stephano pledges to Caliban that he will try and Kill Prospero, who Caliban hates for enslaving him. Than Those other dudes, The King, Gonzalo, Sebastian and Antonio have been wandering around for a bit get attracted by this magnificent feast, another ruse by Prospero. Like who just walks up to a buffet in the middle of an island and thinks it’s a good idea to eat it. Why?! Anywho, than Ariel shows up as a giant harpy (bird lady) and is like: YOU’VE ALL DONE AWFUL THINGS TO EVERYONE HERE! REPENT YOUR SINS, etc.

Ariel as the harpy

 

In act 4 Miranda and Ferdinand get hitched. After knowing each other for less than a day. Congrats guys and Miranda is 14 so this is all kinda gross. Than we move onto the three drunk dudes, who have found Prosperos quarters and there just stealing a bunch of his stuff when BAM! They are chased off by Demon dogs summoned by Prospero.

This picture shows why Caliban (on the left) might want Prospero (right) to die

In act 5 Prospero gathers all the people that have been messing around on his island. And he forgives them all. Including his Brother, who offers him the dukedom, the guys who tired to kill him etc. So then after forgiving them “he’s like okay you know that boat I sank? Well I didn’t really sink it it’s still here so let’s all go back to Milan.”

fav quote: “What a thrice double ass I was to take this drunkards for Gods!” – Caliban referring to the two drunk men, Stephano and Trinuclo.

So that’s arranged. And then he frees Ariel and Caliban who were both his slaves. Then dramatically he gives up his magic because he’s done everything he can with it and doesn’t need it anymore. Then they all get on the boat and go home!

The end. Of that.

 

Next we moved on to New France.

We learnt about the Major players there, who ran what and how they interacted with the natives. I found it very interesting the country wives in New France, whom were First Nation women who married a Fur traders and I found it interesting the story of the beginning of interracial couples. We also about: The early exploration of New France, I.e. who got their first and all that. The two rival fur trading companies, the NWC (North West Company) and the HBC (Hudson’s Bay Comany). We learnt that the HBC was much bigger and more prevelent in the eastern provinces and that the NWC was much sneakier and set up more posts all throughout the North of B.C.

Map of Trade routes for NWC and HBC

Finally we learnt about all the countries fighting over New France and Canada and the Seven Years war. So basically Britain and France Faught a lot and eventually Britain won. So that’s why we mostly speak English here. And then we learnt that British did something bad. Real Bad. You see, there were these people called the Acadians, they lived in what was called Acadia. But the British didn’t want them there. So they kicked everyone out of their homes. Nice going.

The Big one

As I said our project was to create tableaus of the main points of each act of the Tempest and set it in New France. The group I was in contained the following people: Aidan, Sam and Paisley. We got act five.

The main points in act five, to sum up, were:

  • Prospero decides to forgive them all,Ariel and Caliban gets freed
  • He gives up on the magic 
  • All return to Milan 

But my group and I decided to switch the First and second points when were presenting.

Basicslly we turned those points into this:

Act 5 Scene 1

Prospero is an Acadian who was kicked out his home. Just as in the Tempest he was kicked out his dukedom. He was deported to New England, but Prospero has had enough, he decided to return to New France and has given up in staying in New England. Just as in the Tempest he gave up on his magic.

Act 5 Scene 2

Prospero is on his Journey back to New France with his daughter Miranda. We see him forgive the British who kicked him out of his home. In the Tempest he forgave all those who came on his Island and messed things up.

Act 5 Scene 3

Prospero has returned home and is being welcomed by the British. Just as in the Tempest he was welcomed home by his ex-evil brother.

That was our run down of the scenes. Here’s the video of us performing:

https://youtu.be/oWCMY6vHVaM

 

That’s it for me for today!

 

My thoughts: This unit was highly educational for me. I learnt so much about a) play writing b) the New France that I ever thought I would. I found quite strange that we were still back then driven by money. Oh boy the human race.  I think the definite fun part of this was a) acting out our scenes and b) creating the back grounds for said scene which you can see below:

 

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