THE TEMPEST till 12 October.
THE TEMPEST: William Shakespeare.
Part of The Complete Works festival.
RSC, Main House.
Runs: 2h 50m, one interval, till 12 October.
Review: Rod Dungate, 8 August 2006.
Truly magical.
Imagine holding your breathe during the interval because you cannot believe a company can sustain the fragilely robust strangeness of the production. Imagine the delight when they do. This is the extraordinary journey Rupert Goold’s production takes you on.
You are distanced from the storm sequence that starts the play by a front cloth; and the action is restricted. No running about all over the acting space; each line is clear and carries meaning. This clarity and attention to detail is a hallmark of Goold’s production. When the space is opened up into Prospero’s cell we are invited into a strange and harsh world, one in which you can live, but only with toughness and hard work. Goold and designer Cadle take their clue, it would seem, from Ariel’s description ‘this most desolate isle.’
The isle is cold, bleak, thin snow covers the ground – this is nature at its hardest. Here is a prison island on which we believe Sycorax could have lived and given birth to a Caliban.
Patrick Stewart is truly magnificent as Prospero. His performance is many layered, complex, and terribly human. He wields his magic with power yet fears, or rather respects, the power of it. He can be strict, authoritarian, humorous; yet when he meets the usurping Duke and entourage he becomes shy and slightly gauche. His relationship with his daughter (Mariah Gale) is deep and touching. Gale creates a Miranda who has built herself from picture books; it’s dangerous acting. It could be funny, but it is too raw for that; how we feel for her.
Prospero has another relationship – one with Ariel. We discover a lot from Julian Bleach’s disturbing performance that owes much to Nosferatu; not in a foolish or camp way, but in a dark and eerie way. It all makes sense, for Ariel – as we discover at the end – is all light and fire; but in the play he is imprisoned in a body that not only keeps him bound to earth but also must, for him, be distasteful. This Ariel haunts the isle, as much a prisoner as Caliban. The Prospero–Ariel relationship, here, is not of master and servant; Prospero only holds the upper hand with a struggle. And witness the whispered moment, long held, when Prospero says to Ariel: ‘I shall miss thee’ – the ‘thee’ here not signifying master and servant, but indicating an intimacy and respect we can hardly fathom.
The production draws much of its strength from the team’s willingness to follow leads wholeheartedly to see where they go – Ariel’s body-prison, Miranda’s picture book, but also Prospero’s cruelty, the real world of the island, the nature of the magic. Combined with passionate and committed performances, The Tempest’s strange world is rooted firmly in our world. I haven’t space to describe it all – the only answer is to experience it for yourself.
Prospero: Patrick Stewart.
Miranda: Mariah Gale.
Ariel: Julian Bleach.
Caliban: John Light.
Antonio: Ken Bones.
Alonso: Finbar Lynch.
Ferdinand: Nick Court.
Sebastian: John Hopkins.
Gonzalo: James Hayes.
Trinculo: Craig Gazey.
Stephano: Joseph Alessi.
Adrian: Chris Jarman.
Francisco: Edmund Kingsley.
Boatswain: Paul Barnhill.
Goddesses: Allyson Brown, Golda Rosheuvel, Emma Jay Thomas.
Mariners: Ravi Aujla, Rob Carroll, Luke Neal, David Rubin.
Directed by: Rupert Goold.
Set Designed by: Giles Cadle.
Costumes Designed by: Nicky Gillibrand.
Lighting Designed by: Paul Anderson.
Music and Sound Designed by: Adam Cork.
Video Designer: Lorna Heavey.
Movement by: Michael Ashcroft.
Assistant Director: Steve Marmion.
Music Director: Bruce O’Neil.
Company Voice Work: Charmian Gradwell and Lyn Darnley.
2006-08-10 13:54:30