Giles Woodforde interviews the cast of The Tempest ahead of their Oxford performance

After a performance of his own play The Honey Man at the Pegasus Theatre earlier this year, actor Tyrone Huggins held a question and answer session with members of the audience.

“Someone asked me whether I’d ever considered playing Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” Tyrone chuckles when we meet in Newcastle where Northern Stage theatre company is based. “So I replied that no, I hadn’t – simply because nobody had ever asked me to audition for the part!”

Perhaps the Pegasus questioner had a crystal ball, because at the time Tyrone had no idea that he would soon be returning to Oxford – to play Prospero in a new production of The Tempest mounted jointly by the Oxford Playhouse, Northern Stage, and Improbable Theatre.

In the play, Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, has been stranded on a remote island for 12 years, having been set adrift in a boat by his jealous brother Antonio.

He’s accompanied by his daughter Miranda. Not surprisingly, he’s become quite a temperamental character.

“He’s got a lot of highs and lows,” Tyrone says. “There’s a sense that he has brooded on his situation for so long that he comes out as a rather testy person.

“He’s been on this island for all those years, and the sense of injustice that he feels plays on his mind: I think his situation would cause anyone to gripe!

“But for me, there’s a point at which he comes to realise how far he’s gone down the line with the idea of vengeance.

There’s something the spirit Ariel says to him: she’s talking about how he’s making people suffer, and suggests that she would feel more gently towards them if she were human. Prospero takes the point, and comes to feel that maybe vengeance isn’t the best way forward.”

Instead, he fosters a romance between his daughter and Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples.

“Prospero spots the possibility that his young daughter could become Queen of Naples if everything works out,” Tyrone explains, with another of his frequently recurring chuckles.

“So he deliberately sets up a meeting between Miranda and Ferdinand – and I think he’s quite struck by how quickly they gravitate towards each other. They’re like super-magnets!”

Tyrone was born on the Caribbean island of St Kitts, and moved to Birmingham when he was five. He first appeared on stage at the age of 11 – playing a field mouse in Toad of Toad Hall at his comprehensive school.

He went on to see a professional production of the play, and that hooked him on to theatre, in all its aspects, for life. “I used to be involved with theatre set building at university, and afterwards for a long time,” he reveals. “So I’d take technical manuals if I were marooned like Prospero – he’s allowed to take some books with him when he’s cast ashore on the desert island.

There’s one book I really like: it’s full of logarithms, algebra and formulas. That book always came in handy when I needed to work out the weight of a piece of scenery, for instance.”

Meanwhile, director Phelim McDermott has used an unusual rehearsal technique for The Tempest: the actors have absorbed their lines from a recording, rather than mugging them up from a script.

“There is no definitive way to play Shakespeare,” Phelim says. “This way of working reveals a myriad of possible interpretations. Every live performance is different, but that’s especially true of this production. As we get near opening night, perhaps some things will become set, but many things will remain open and fluid, and will be played differently at each performance.”

It’s an approach that Tyrone welcomes: “I’m quite drawn to it because a lot of my early work was in experimental theatre: three of the performers would have scripted texts to work from, and the other two of us would improvise our parts at each performance.

“But with Shakespeare, when I was thinking about whether to accept this job or not, I thought: Actually my interest is in theatre and plays. As it’s a play, I have a way in because I know how they work, because I’ve written plays myself.

“So I’m going to treat it as a piece of theatre based on Shakespeare’s play.”

Here Tyrone adds another chuckle: “If anyone wants an academic experience, then read the text! “The first hurdle with Shakespeare is always the language,” he adds. “It’s making the language work so that it opens the door for people, rather than closing them down. I hope we’ve achieved a way of handling the language that is open and accessible, so that people understand exactly what Prospero is saying.”

The Tempest will be at the Oxford Playhouse from October 14 to 24.