THE TEMPEST. In rep to 22 June.

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THE TEMPEST
by William Shakespeare

The Roundhouse, London In rep to 22 June 2002
7.15 Mats Wed & Sat 1.30pm
Runs 3hr 5min One interval

TICKETS 0870 609 1110
Review Timothy Ramsden 7 May

The Roundhouse proves a fitting space for Boyd's often exciting production.Three hours is a long-time for The Tempest to last. At best it allows tension and detail; at worst, as in the not very funny scenes of Caliban and the two drunken shipmen, it's tortuously protracted. A similar ambivalence runs through the production – an exciting use of space, yes, but close up some of Malcolm Storry's vocal shaping of lines seems exaggerated (as old-style theatre make-up did with a nearby camera lens).

Yet the distances between Prospero and his alternative children, Miranda and Ariel, who he repeatedly calls to across voids, emphasise his remoteness. Sirine Saba's mature wild-child Miranda is a handful; without his magic arts you suspect she'd make Prospero's single parent life a tough one. And if she's inherited her nature from dad, it makes Duke Prospero far from the bookish recluse he often seems, more logically a figure for overthrow (what was the purpose of all that study?), and consistent with the power-wielder who rules the island.

His voyage from anger and control-freakery is guided, unconsciously, by Ariel. Kananu Kirimi's slight, lithe figure is a major triumph of the production. Clearly wary of Prospero, she turns into the foot who's his tutor. Her simple statement of how, if human, she'd feel pity stretches across the Roundhouse void to open, almost visibly, this learned man's imagination to the humanity he's had within him.

But there's a reckoning, for Prospero's story closes on a confrontation with Caliban. Geff Francis is no half-fish but a dignified creature, making you forget how his witch-mum treated Ariel. And Boyd's vision lets him close each half, the first with a repeat of his cry 'This island's mine', triumphant now he thinks he has a serious rebel force against Prospero (Caliban trusts the drunks as noble warriors as ironically as Miranda sees nobility in the treacherous nobles). Then, finally, Prospero's magic staff broken, Caliban stands tall and ready to claim his independence.

This Tempest's not always successful - the wedding masque seems a poor pantomime burlesque; you could believe Boyd wished it'd go away. But his production's brave, fresh and strikingly imaginative, its insights all springing true from the script.

Prospero: Malcolm Storry
Miranda: Sirine Saba
Ariel/Iris: Kananu Kirimi
Caliban: Geff Francis
Antonio: Brian Protheroe
Alonso: Keith Bartlett
Ferdinand: Alan Turkington
Sebastian: Tom Beard
Gonzalo: Jerome Willis
Trinculo: Simon Gregor
Stephano: Roger Frost
Adrian: Dylan Charles
Francisco: James Garnon
Master of the Ship/Juno: James Staddon
Boatswain/Ceres: James Telfer
Mariners/Spirits: Dan Crute, Gracy G Goldman, James Hyland, Fiona Lait, Jami Quarrell

Director: Michael Boyd
Designer: Tom Piper
Lighting: Tina MacHugh
Sound: Mic Pool
Music: Craig Armstrong, John Woolf
Music Director: John Woolf/Richard Brown
Movement: Liz Ranken
Aerial Choreography: Gavin Marshall
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare
Company voice work: Lyn Darnley, Andrew Wade
Fights: Terry King

2002-05-13 11:05:29