On November 6-10 I’ll present my paper “Shipwrecked in Paradise: Expanding Consciousness in Michael Fleck’s The Tempest, A New Age Adaptation” for the “Shakespeare and the Early Moderns” Panel at the PAMLA Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference “Translation in Action,” in Palm Springs, CA. This paper analyzes Michael Fleck’s The Tempest: A New Age Adaptation, first produced by the Maui Community Theatre, Hawaii in April 1977. In reshaping Shakespeare’s hypotext, Fleck offered a vehicle for spiritual enlightenment through a synthesis of “the major currents of the ‘consciousness revolution’ of the 1970’s.” Thus, interacting with the Bard’s original characters, we find devas connected with the four elements; an indigenous New Age family whose members are named after Zodiac signs and practice Aikido; and even live plants performing their “greenhouse vibration.” The magician Prospero is now a “corporation drop-out,” who draws his powers from a connection with nature’s energies through Tai-Chi rather than any sort of occult magick. In times of increased awareness of ecological responsibility, the play acquires renewed relevance, pitting the Hawaiian Edenic environment against those who want to destroy it for profit.
