The action centers on a fictional portrayal of Fanny Kembles farewell performance to her beloved audience. She has chosen a reading of Shakespeares The Tempest as her swan song. As she reads she slips in and out of the characters on Shakespeares magical island and relives her own life as an actress a mother an abolitionist and a triumphant author. Fanny Kemble was a mid19th century actress from a theatrical family in Britain. She married an American and was an early feminist abolitionist writer and one of the most celebrated actresses to grace the 19thcentury American stage. She argued politics with U.S. presidents. She inspired Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass and Henry James Washington Square. She was the first entertainment superstar about whom newspapers gossiped women imitated her and men wore her likeness on neckties. After her divorce in 1849 she gave dramatic readings of Shakespeares plays in which she performed all the roles.