THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST

RSC at the Barbican Theatre

17.08.2017

One for the purists, perhaps. Not that Emma Rice over the river has got her jazz hands on The Tempest. Greg Doran's production is pleasingly traditional, with a solid central performance from Simon Russell Beale. Even the much-vaunted technology is in keeping with the spirit of this late work, in which Shakespeare plays with stage effects and spectacle.

Only occasionally does the technical upstage the acting – in the opening storm, for example. The magical Ariel [Mark Quartley] and the underwater sequences are sublimely successful. The setting, in the ribs of the wreck, works very well, transforming into the gaudy pastoral thanks to the magic of projected digital graphics.

A strong company includes Jenny Rainsford's knowing Miranda, Simon Trinder's clown Trinculo, and Jonathan Broadbent very convincing as usurping [younger] brother to SRB.

Joe Dixon makes an impressive deformed Caliban, an amorphous monster lumbering clumsily like a beetle, repulsive yet strangely sympathetic.

Russell Beale is a magnificent Magician, beset by human frailties, leaving us at the close with a touchingly simple soliloquy, before Paul Englishby's music swells as if for the end titles.

We wouldn't wish every production to be so heavily reliant on special effects, but this Tempest – a sell-out in Stratford last year – is both an exploration of the possibilities, and a straightforward telling of the tale, suitable for novices and know-alls alike.

THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST

Sea-Change Theatre at the Rose Playhouse

23.06.17

for Remote Goat

Shakespeare probably saw his Tempest over the river at Blackfriars. He'd be bewildered to find it performed 400 years later on the sparse remains of The Rose, already dark by the time the play was penned.

He'd be intrigued by this beautifully simple staging, directed by Ray Malone and designed by Lu Firth. Ropes, crates, and a distant prospect of the very Romantic storm, which we view, with Miranda, from afar.

Sea-change, a women-only company, seeks to “invert the Elizabethan convention of male-only performances”. Their name is taken from Act I – one of Shakespeare's many coinings – and this was their inaugural production, first seen on Lesvos last year.

The cross-gendering works well, for the most part. Many of the male characters, names unchanged, become women. Others remain resolutely masculine – the clowns, the Neapolitan nobles, striking in their beards, black doublets and red sashes. No chance of meeting Claribel, but we do get to see Sycorax [Lottie Vallis] – a strong female role – conjured by Ariel in a very effective scene.

American actor Marianne Hyatt makes an imposing Prospero, the poetry beautifully delivered [though it's a shame that Our Revels was both misplaced and misremembered]. Her daughter is played by Lakshmi Khabrani, in an impassioned, and often passionate, reading. Kimberley Jarvis is a compelling Ferdinand; Lucianne Regan an angelic Ariel, in a long white robe which seems to sap some of the fun and the energy from an otherwise delightful interpretation. A strong Caliban from Rosie Jones, giving The Isle is Full of Noises to just one auditor in the front row, and a great Laurel and Hardy double-act from Vix Dillon and Gerry Bell as Stephano and Trinculo, the drunken butler – skin-head and England shirt … 

Sue Frumin, who wrote this version, makes several appearances as Myrtle, the mudlark peddling relics from the river. A good idea to root the production in the place, but like the hand-held projector, it didn't really work in practice.

The publicity might lead us to expect a more radical re-working, rather than this magical, captivating 90-minute Tempest, which though it has its own agenda, manages to respect the text, the place and the audience. Let's leave the really radical to the rival house across the way … 

THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST

Shakespeare's Globe at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

06.04.16

Whether or not this is the Bard's farewell to the stage, it makes an ideal envoi to mark the end of Dominic Dromgoole's ten years at the helm of Shakespeare's Globe.

In the candlelit intimacy of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, there's room for the story to unfold on many levels. The opening storm itself gives a triple whammy. A model vessel against a hand-held wooden ocean, then a riotous pitching deck, the mariners and their passengers threatening to spill over into the audience. And finally the echoes of the voices of the drowning calling down from the galleries, for all the world like Captain Cat's shipmates in Llareggub.

There's plenty of knockabout fun from the clowns Dominic Rowan and Trevor Fox, supplementing Shakespeare's text with quick-fire adlibs. Some of the Globe's best comic actors bring wry humour to lesser roles too, notably Christopher Logan as Sebastian. Fisayo Akinade is a fine, proud Caliban.

Tim McMullan's Prospero is grave, with a rich voice matched in gravitas by Joseph Marcel's Gonzago. Not heard the poetry delivered so beautifully since Gielgud. He bids farewell to Caliban and to Ariel, the earthly and the ethereal aspects of his art, as he prepares to break his staff and drown his book.

Pippa Nixon is his Ariel [like the mariners, everywhere and nowhere in the magical candlelight] moving curiously through the mortals and along the parapet separating pit from gallery. And his Miranda, Pheobe Price, is a credible teenager, marvelling at the brave new world of men, including Dharmesh Patel's excellent Ferdinand.

A very enjoyable chamber Tempest, fun and fantastical by turns, with all the hallmarks of Dromgoole's robust approach to his hero Shakespeare, honouring the text while entertaining the playgoers.

Photograph: Marc Brenner

THE TEMPEST

THE TEMPEST

at Shakespeare's Globe

30.04.13

Not the first Tempest to strike the Globe – the first had a great Caliban [Jasper Britton] and a sad disappointment for Prospero. Their next was clever, but confusing and not always magical. Third time lucky this year, I'd say, with a cast strong in depth and a clear, honest production by Jeremy Herrin.

Prospero is Roger Allam, who took this space by storm last season with his Falstaff, and seems equally at home, almost relaxed, on this magical island. Not much of a philosopher, perhaps, or a magus, but a wonderfully tender father to Jessie Buckley's wide-eyed Miranda. He brings some welcome wit to the role, too, and has already developed his own way of dealing with the ever-intrusive helicopters.

There is a bigger model boat, but mercifully little stage design, though the Globe's wooden O is echoed in a generous extension into the yard, and there's a long staircase up to a platform in front of the musicians' gallery. [Stephen Warbeck the composer this time.]

Caliban is another Globe favourite, James Garnon, wearing little more than body paint, but physically impressive, and able to still the packed house with The Isle is Full of Noises. Colin Morgan makes an ethereal Ariel, using the building for some spectacular parkour. And plenty of belly laughs for the groundlings thanks to Trevor Fox's Geordie Trinculo and Sam Cox's drunken butler.

But it is Allam's island, and his final staff-breaking farewell is masterly.