The Storm

Synopsis

Descending from the heavenly sphere of the gods to the mortal world below, Arcturus raises a mighty storm. For Labrax, a 'procurer' of women, the storm brings shipwreck and ruin. For his female captives it offers a chance of escape. Washed up on a rocky coastline the two women seek refuge in the shrine of Venus, but it seems that the goddess alone cannot protect them. They are forced to rely instead on the help of the elderly Daemones, who is already struggling to control his reluctant slaves: the impudent Sceparino and the inept Gripus.

Our Review:

15 August 2005

For the final production of Mark Rylance’s reign as artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, the company has turned to ancient Rome, courtesy of Peter Oswald’s adaptation of the Plautus play, The Rope. The company has been down this path before. This is its second version of a Latin play, following the successful 2002 production of Apuleius’s Golden Ass, also adapted by Oswald.

The plot is simple. Daemones’ daughter Palaestra has been kidnapped as a child and has been working in brothel. She's sold by her pimp to a rich man, only for the pimp to decamp with the money. After the eponymous storm, all the characters are shipwrecked close to Daemones’ home and, via various adventures, all ends happily. Keen observers will have noted the resemblance to Pericles – indeed, Shakespeare’s comedy is based on the same Plautus original.

Oswald’s play, however, takes greater liberties with the text, with a very post-modern spin on the notion ...

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