Which play by Shakespeare is set entirely on an island?

The play set almost entirely on a remote island is Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Written around 1610–1611, it begins with a storm at sea, but the action quickly moves to an unnamed Mediterranean island ruled by Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan.

Prospero uses magic to bring his enemies ashore after their shipwreck. On the island, he lives with his daughter Miranda, the spirit Ariel, and Caliban, whom he has enslaved. The isolated setting allows Shakespeare to explore betrayal, political power, colonial attitudes, revenge, forgiveness, and the boundary between civilization and nature.

A small wording nuance is worth noting: the first scene takes place aboard a ship during the tempest, so the play is not literally set on an island from its opening moment. Nevertheless, The Tempest is the canonical answer to this familiar trivia question because nearly all of its dramatic action occurs on the island. It is also one of Shakespeare’s final plays and appeared in the First Folio of 1623.