Shakespeare in The Wilds: Experimenting with The Tempest

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the TV series The Wilds (Amazon Prime, 2020) as an adaptational experiment with Shakespeare’s The Tempest in several respects: as one of the latest complex TV shows to engage with the Shakespearean legacy, it experiments with the serialization of Shakespeare’s plot. Further, being an ‘unmarked’ adaptation that never directly refers to Shakespeare, it tests the limits as to what is ‘Shakespeare’ and what is ‘not Shakespeare’ or ‘no longer Shakespeare’ in the adaptational rhizome created by The Tempest and its reworkings, among which Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and the TV series Lost are of particular importance for The Wilds. Changing Shakespeare’s character constellation to an all-female group of teenage castaways overseen by a female social scientist modelled on Prospero who seeks to overcome master narratives of fraternal power struggles, colonial exploitation, and patriarchal sexual oppression, The Wilds tests which changes the Shakespeare material can and perhaps needs to undergo to continue to have cultural meaning today. As part of this radical re-gendering, the series multiplies and collates Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban to interrogate contemporary girlhood and the future of intersectional feminism. The article concludes by assessing how the series appeals to differently knowing viewers, some of whom will feel invited to partake in the Tempest experiment, while others will lose Shakespeare’s tracks in The Wilds.