
The Tempest for autistic people
"Groundbreaking Shakespeare"
October 2016




Previous Performances
The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford upon Avon July 2014
The Wexner centre Columbus Ohio July 2014
Bloomsbury Theatre, Bloomsbury Festival, October 2015
The Help Centre, Los Angeles US, May 2016
Festival de Clasicos en Alcala de Henares, June 2016
Festival of Love, Southbank Centre, July 2016
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond UK, October 2016
Teatre Lliure, Barcelona, March 2017
Riverside Studios, London April 2022-August 2023
The Old Market Theatre May 2022
Craiova International Shakespeare Festival Romania April 2023
Situational Centre for Ukraine. Sofia Bulgaria May 2022-April 2023
Teatro La Plaza, Lima Peru September 2023
Festival Tanar de Sibiu at Teatrul Gong, Sibiu Romania, November 2023
Adapted and Directed by Kelly Hunter
Original Design Anthony Lamble
— La Tempesta, Barcelona (2017)


"I made this show in 2014 based on sensory games I had started to invent in 2003, so it was a long time coming. At the centre of the show is a game where Miranda teaches Caliban how to say his name and “how to name the bigger light and how the less that burn by day and night”. This scene isn’t in Shakespeare’s original play but is so vividly spoken of by Miranda and Caliban within the scenes and is one of the first games I ever invented for autistic individuals, empowering them with the opportunity to be the “teacher”. I have continued to direct this production around the world in many different languages for the last nine years, most recently at Teatro La Plaza in Lima Peru. With each new production, the show develops depending on the responses to the games of the autistic individuals and the talents and creativity of the actors, especially in the realm of the music. Notably in 2017, I directed the show in Catalan at Teatre Lliure, an experience that totally changed my life and gave me renewed confidence that these productions for marginalised audiences could be an ongoing endeavour. The Catalan actors literally opened up my own musicality and showed me “riches, ready to drop upon me”.
—Kelly Hunter

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