Masks of Whiteness: Race, Costume and Casting in the Post-colonial Tempest

This chapter explores how costume might interrogate or critique racial and colonial stereotypes and where it might be in danger of reiterating them. The author traces the implications for power relations in The Tempest that are contained in more monstrous and more human possible early ‘costume designs’ for Caliban and asks how ‘other’ to Prospero and Miranda the first Caliban might have appeared in its first staging. There follows a consideration of the costumes worn by black Ariels and Calibans commanded by white Prosperos in the productions directed by Joanthan Miller in 1970 and 1988, then the author considers how black and white actors are costumed in productions where the master/slave relationship between Prospero and the Islanders is not figured in obviously colonial terms but where a post-colonial sensibility might still be said to underpin casting.