Shakespeare's The Tempest: to be read or watched? That is the question

Can dramatic poetry only be fully appreciated on stage, as purists argue - and where do audiobooks fit into the picture?

I discovered the following in my Penguin edition of The Tempest: "He is the greatest of poets, but he is essentially a dramatic poet. Though his plays have much to offer readers, they exist fully only in the performance."

That's a quote from Stanley Wells, the general editor of the entire Penguin Shakespeare series, which I'm assuming appears in every Penguin Shakespeare out there at the moment, and is a pretty brave thing for a man who is supposed to be selling books to say. The implication is that you're better off spending time and money on a performance. A sentiment that has also cropped up in the comments on this month's Reading Group articles.

There is a problem here. Shakespeare's plays are for seeing in performance. Reading them, even for an experienced performer, is heavy going. To read any play with a large cast, it's hard to keep track of who is who and their relationships with each other. Harder still to remember who is in the scene and not saying much. Some people say you can improve things with a chess board and named pieces and lots of different voices. Reading a play aloud in an upstairs pub room would be even better but not what we have here.

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!

'Tis new to thee.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

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