August 4, 2010
This was marvellous, a gleeful romp of a production that successfully brings out the humour as well as the darker motifs in Shakespeare’s late, great Romance. The OSC clearly operates on a restricted budget, and as sometimes happens this has inspired them to be exceptionally creative, and, what is delightfully refreshing, that creativity is not cramped or limited in any way by solemn reverence for Shakespeare as Great Art. The Company shares with the Tate Modern a mission statement of ‘mass elitism’, and in fact this slightly pared-down version of The Tempest pretty much nailed it – it was absolutely comprehensible to the children in the audience, but still retained the extraordinary, soaring beauty and poetry of the full text. I’ve seen quite a few Tempests in my time, including awesome productions by the RSC that probably had production budgets equal to the annual revenues of a small East European country, and were in their way beautiful and delightful, but this was much more enjoyable, more fun, and more moving, than any of those.
Prospero is a difficult role to inhabit, because to a modern audience he is distinctly unlikeable for the first half of the play. He’s an angry man, outraged at being ousted from his dukedom by his usurping brother, even though he freely admits that he himself was rubbish at governing and spent all his time in his library reading books; bitter at the cruelty of being cast adrift on the sea in a leaky boat with his infant daughter, thirsting for revenge on the brother and his ally the King of Naples, quick to resent any affront to his authority as ruler of the island, demanding obedience from his two enslaved spirits and from his daughter. He enjoys wielding his weird magical powers, manipulating everyone according to his schemes (shades of the horrible manipulating Duke in Measure for Measure), ordering Ariel to orchestrate his plots (shades of Oberon and Puck) and Caliban to do his dirty work. His only redeeming features are his great love for his daughter, and the gratitude he feels to Gonzalo, the lord who secretly furnished him with the clothes, provisions, and books with which he has made the island his home for the past twelve years.
Michael Hadley is a handsome, magisterial Prospero in whom can be seen the seeds of the kindlier, forgiving Prospero at the end of the play, a naturally cheerful-tempered and generous-spirited person who has been warped from his true nature by his fury at his brother’s betrayal. It makes him mean to Ariel, mean to Ferdinand and Miranda – but crucially he can still learn and change, and this production rightly gives huge weight to that wonderful scene between Prospero and Ariel, in which Ariel teaches him what it really means to be human, or rather, to be the best sort of human rather than the worst sort (Act V Scene i), which was beautifully done and brought a lump to the throat.
Sophie Franklin was a wonderful Miranda, innocent without being icky, feisty and sweet and quite extraordinarily beautiful. Her energy and charm were central to the welling up of joy and fun that were at the heart of this production. Richard Pryal did an awesome job of playing both Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples and Miranda’s devoted lover, and the gross and beastly Caliban (once in the same scene!) and was a commanding physical presence in both roles. Christopher Jordan as Trinculo and Sebastian, Rodney Matthew as Stephano and Antonio, Matthew Fraser Holland as Ariel and Gonzalo, Mario Vernazza as Alonso, were also nothing short of brilliant – endlessly, superbly inventive. The music was surprisingly good, the choreography excellent, and I won’t say a word about what they do with the masque in the betrothal scene, because it would spoil one of the best moments of the evening.
Rush out any buy tickets now before it’s too late!
Prospero is a difficult role to inhabit, because to a modern audience he is distinctly unlikeable for the first half of the play. He’s an angry man, outraged at being ousted from his dukedom by his usurping brother, even though he freely admits that he himself was rubbish at governing and spent all his time in his library reading books; bitter at the cruelty of being cast adrift on the sea in a leaky boat with his infant daughter, thirsting for revenge on the brother and his ally the King of Naples, quick to resent any affront to his authority as ruler of the island, demanding obedience from his two enslaved spirits and from his daughter. He enjoys wielding his weird magical powers, manipulating everyone according to his schemes (shades of the horrible manipulating Duke in Measure for Measure), ordering Ariel to orchestrate his plots (shades of Oberon and Puck) and Caliban to do his dirty work. His only redeeming features are his great love for his daughter, and the gratitude he feels to Gonzalo, the lord who secretly furnished him with the clothes, provisions, and books with which he has made the island his home for the past twelve years.
Michael Hadley is a handsome, magisterial Prospero in whom can be seen the seeds of the kindlier, forgiving Prospero at the end of the play, a naturally cheerful-tempered and generous-spirited person who has been warped from his true nature by his fury at his brother’s betrayal. It makes him mean to Ariel, mean to Ferdinand and Miranda – but crucially he can still learn and change, and this production rightly gives huge weight to that wonderful scene between Prospero and Ariel, in which Ariel teaches him what it really means to be human, or rather, to be the best sort of human rather than the worst sort (Act V Scene i), which was beautifully done and brought a lump to the throat.
Sophie Franklin was a wonderful Miranda, innocent without being icky, feisty and sweet and quite extraordinarily beautiful. Her energy and charm were central to the welling up of joy and fun that were at the heart of this production. Richard Pryal did an awesome job of playing both Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples and Miranda’s devoted lover, and the gross and beastly Caliban (once in the same scene!) and was a commanding physical presence in both roles. Christopher Jordan as Trinculo and Sebastian, Rodney Matthew as Stephano and Antonio, Matthew Fraser Holland as Ariel and Gonzalo, Mario Vernazza as Alonso, were also nothing short of brilliant – endlessly, superbly inventive. The music was surprisingly good, the choreography excellent, and I won’t say a word about what they do with the masque in the betrothal scene, because it would spoil one of the best moments of the evening.
Rush out any buy tickets now before it’s too late!
