Professor Butter Beard and “The Tempest”
“I have bedimmed the noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds and ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault set roaring war. Graves at my command have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth by my so potent art.
But this rough magic I here abjure, and, when I have required some heavenly music, which even now I do, to work mine end upon their senses that this airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.”
– Prospero, “The Tempest”
I remember the first time I read “Frankenstein.” Mary Shelly and the twelve-year-old me weathered a ferocious summer thunderstorm together; the author spinning her tale between shattering explosions of thunder and shrieking bolts of lightning. I closed my father’s weathered edition just as the night sky began to display the purple dawn of morning. And I remember most vividly thinking, “Who really was the monster?”
This enormous question carried over into my present spring and summer of directing William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The play was written by Shakespeare between 1610 and 1611 and is considered to be one of the last plays he wrote alone. The plot is not based on a single true story, but it is now thought to be inspired by real events, particularly a shipwreck involving the “Sea Venture” in 1609, which was part of the Virginia Company's expedition to the New World.
A tail of wreckage and magic, “The Tempest” begins on a royal passenger vessel caught in the eye of a violent storm with Alonso, the king of Naples, and other family members on board. On a nearby island, the exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, tells his daughter, Miranda, that he has caused the “tempest” with his magical powers. Does Prospero actually have magic within his soul, or does he manipulate the magic of others….. But, I jump ahead.
Prospero had been banished twelve years earlier when his brother, Antonio—also on the doomed ship—conspired with King Alonso to become the duke instead. All are shipwrecked but alive, trapped together as castaways on this seemingly paradise island. And thus begins Prospero’s compulsive plan for revenge.
Prospero and Miranda are served by an air spirit named Ariel and by Caliban, the disfigured son of the island’s previous inhabitant, the witch Sycorax. Power and control, reimagined in my mind for our production as “puppeteering,” shape nearly every relationship in the work, driving conflict and revealing the moral character of all those who wield authority. Prospero’s command of the island is rooted in both political power and magical dominance. His “control” over Ariel and Caliban demonstrates how authority can be used to oppress or liberate.
Yet the play ultimately questions the value of domination. Prospero’s decision to relinquish magic, “I’ll break my staff… I’ll drown my book,” signals a rejection of absolute control. By choosing dialogue over domination, he eventually models a more humane form of leadership. Power in the play is therefore demonstrated not only as a force to be gained or lost, but as a moral test that reveals the true nature of those who hold it.
Who really is the monster?
My birthday (no, I won’t reveal which one) coincided with the second weekend of our “Tempest” production. A most heartfully treasured soul gifted me with a magically found version of the play published in London in 1908 with original illustrations by Paul Woodroffe and original songs by Joseph Moorat. The watercolors are gorgeous, protected within the volume by thin transparent sheets of parchment between the printed verse. The storm roars alive, forever to remind me of my evening with Mary Shelley and the wonderous journey of directing this current production.
The storm also inspired me to create a new quick bread featuring a “tempest of tastes” – the explosive thunder and lightning of pickled jalapeños, the vivid green color and the salt water of the raging sea represented by shreds of summer zucchini, and the calming reassuring dawn encapsulated within white cheddar.
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on.”
Professor Butter Beard’s Pickled Jalapeño, Zucchini and Cheddar Bread
1 loaf (or 8 mini loaves)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp Kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ cup olive oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 large egg
¼ cup pickled jalapeños, coarsely chopped
6 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated (do not squeeze out the juice)
1) Spray a 9”x4” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with a parchment paper sling. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg. In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, buttermilk and egg.
3) Coarsely chop the pickled jalapeños. Set at the ready. Grate the cheddar and the zucchini and have at the ready.
4) Add the wet mixture to the dry and fold together until there are no streaks of flour. Fold in the pickled jalapeños, cheddar and zucchini. The mixture will be very thick.
5) Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, level the top and bake on the middle rack 50-55 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
