The Tempest is set on a remote island, home to the sky-spirits and creatures-of-the-earth. When Prospero, the Duchess of Milan and a studied sorcerer, is banished from Milan with her young daughter, they make the island their home. Over time, the harmony of the island is upset and sky and earth roil in sometimes-furious competition for Prospero’s favor. Many years pass. Prospero, in an effort to avenge herself and her daughter and to restore her power, conjures up a storm to lure her usurping brother Antonio and King Alonso of Naples to the island. The storm tears the ship’s crew apart and each party comes to the island convinced they are the only survivors. With the assistance of Ariel and the other sky-spirits, Prospero plays with the travelers’ state of vulnerability and confusion to accomplish her goal of regaining power in the human world.
