Staging Shakespeare's midlife crisis

THE plot of The Tempest might be about a marooned duke plotting his way out of an island back into Milanese government, but it's really about a man going through a midlife crisis.

That's certainly how director Braham Murray says he read the character of Prospero in Shakespeare's last play, which the Bard wrote as a swan song.

Murray has directed this play only once before - over 20 years ago, when he was in his 40s as well, going through a midlife crisis.

It takes one to recognise one, he adds; he could identify with Prospero's character. "In your 30s, you've just gone through the heady days of the 20s, and you begin to have a career. In your 40s, you wonder if you made the right choice - and realise that if you wanted to change cour…