The isles of wonder

There is a strong Shakespearean subtext to the London Olympics opening ceremony.

The ceremonies are on for tonight, Friday, July 27. Famed British film director, Danny Boyle, has "directed" the ceremonies, and it's thus no wonder that the title of the show is "The Isles of Wonder."

I mean, Boyle is known for championing the underdog in his movies; remember Slumdog Millionaire? "The Isles of Wonder" is inspired, as Boyle has said, by a speech made by Britain's very own Shakespearean slumdog, Caliban.

In one of Shakespeare's later plays, The Tempest, Caliban, is a "savage". But he is also the rightful heir to the island, which, has been occupied by Prospero, an outsider from "civilized" Europe.

Prospero has cast Caliban into servitude, and it is in one of his slavish moments of reflection that Caliban says the following about the "Isles":

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. 

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; 

and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, 

Will make me sleep again; 

and then in dreaming, 

The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me, 

that when I waked I cried to dream again.

Caliban here refers to magic that Prospero uses to keep the island in his control. Caliban is a recalcitrant fellow who won't be subdued through civilization, so Prospero keeps him spell-bound.

Prospero rules through the spectacle of magic. As Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, an English Professor at Kenyon College, notes, British monarchs, whether fictional or real, have traditionally used the power of spectacle to establish hegemony over the isles especially during times of tension and trouble.

The opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics promises to be an extravagant spectacle with a budget surpassing a billion or so pounds. And Britain is currently in social and economic trouble with extreme budget cuts in essential services, unemployment and tears in the social fabric of the nation. So a spectacle might serve the purpose of projecting unity. Lobanov-Rostovsky notes:

The British can no longer conquer the world with yeomen’s cries of “God for Harry! England and Saint George!” but the world still tunes in to watch their spectacles with fascination. And more important, so do the British. These spectacles allow them to regain their composure after a season of bad news, but also to compose themselves as the Great Britain we know so well, turning the well-worn face of majesty to the world once more.