Pam, Caliban has been played in numerous productions by a black actor to initiate the racial and colonialist readings that many directors have used on this text. Landau is not the first director to cast African-American actors in the roles of Ariel and Caliban with a white Prospero; in fact George C. Wolfe (an African-American director) did the same thing in the acclaimed 1995 New York production that starred Patrick Stewart as Prospero. I agree with Paul that the racial casting is absolutely intentional, and you can’t talk about Ariel and Caliban being played by black actors and not mention that Alonso, a duke and brother to Prospero, and Miranda, Prospero’s daughter are also played by black actors. The casting of these four characters vis-a-vis Frank Galati’s white Prospero does give a more complex commentary on the racial landscape of modern America, which can’t be boiled down to a soundbyte (and shouldn’t be) on a humble blog post. Tony Adler actually touches on this, but doesn’t delve into it, in his Chicago Reader rave:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/theaterreviews/090409/tempest/

The cast was superb. Props to Steppenwolf for continuing to nurture and bring to the company extremely talented ensemble members. My personal favorite in the production would be Mr Freeman, for making Caliban human, and not the neanderthal beast that other productions of Tempest portray the character to be.

Interesting too the idea that this is the Ariel show, not Prospero’s. There are so many parallels to our recent history that i think resonates the most in this production. A changing of the guard if you will. Young blood dominating the political scene in both parties. Kal Penn’s new job at the White House.

I will be seeing 12th Night in a few weeks. From all i’ve read, it will be a very different experience from The Tempest. Props to Chicago theater for the diversity, talent, and artistic creativity that it brings to the audience.

Pam, the racial casting is almost certainly intentional, but I don’t think you can bring up the Ariel/Caliban example without also mentioning that Prospero’s daughter and brother are also played by black actors, making it a more complex choice.

But I wonder what you think about the fact that Prospero was played by a white actor, and the two characters who are pretty much his slaves were both played by black actors. It made me hugely uncomfortable, but I rather wonder if that wasn’t the point.