THE TEMPEST till 22 Oct

Liverpool

THE TEMPEST
by William Shakespeare

Liverpool Playhouse To 22 October 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 13, 20 Oct 1.30pm 15, 20 Oct 2pm
Audio-described 13 Oct
Post-show discussion: 12 Oct
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 October

Theatrical verve swept up with dramatic perception.
Near this play’s end lordly magician Prospero abjures his “rough magic”, and Philip Franks’ inspiring revival reveals the shabby showmanship that can come so near the mystical. The skeletal dome of Gideon Davey’s setting suggests the interior of a cranium, the colourful scenic element at the back might be Arcadian landscape or wild vegetation. A bench seems brought in from some local park. But glimpsed in odd corners, then brought into focus after the interval are elements of a funfair, identified in Franks’ programme note as an end-of-the-pier show.

Ariel’s invisible cries of “Thou liest”, which cause dissension below-stairs, see him concealed in a bouncy clown’s suit; Miranda and Ferdinand’s wedding masque introduces waltzing carousel horses. Such ingenuities offset the magic of humanity, with its good and ill.

Casting Christopher Ravenscroft and Leah Muller as Prospero and Miranda was never going to suggest quiet times in the Prospero household. Both are high-pitched actors and Ravenscroft brings a youthful zest for discovery. Like an ever-zealous academic, he’s never so furious as when someone disturbs his work. Remembering Caliban’s plot he bulldozes through the masque, grinding it to a halt, making the famous “cloud-capped towers” speech a microcosm of both earthly evanescence and imaginative construction.

Muller brings an intelligence linked to feeling; discovering for the first time a clutch of men, she regards them – grizzled Gonzalo (Timothy Kightley, clear and vivid as always) and murderous Antonio alike – as wonderful beings.

Franks’ production is filled with fresh characterisations – Ariel’s disappointed from the start at his delayed emancipation, but behaves like a compliant student awaiting his degree from Prof Prospero, while Caliban’s the resentful, not quite vicious, street-boy who knows better than educated types. And it’s easy to see why Andrew Pointon’s Trinculo had a shipboard job in contact with passengers, while Christopher Knott’s burly Stephano was kept cooking in the kitchen.

Those so-often anonymous passengers become vividly individualised. Bedside Kightley, there are Robert Goodale’s shell-shocked Alonso and a contrast between Simon Roberts’ sports-jacketed, slower-witted Sebastian and the sleekly conniving Antonio of James Wallace - as clear and coherent as all this production’s elements.

Ariel: Richard Glaves
Alonso: Robert Goodale
Gonzalo: Timothy Kightley
Stephano: Christopher Knott
Miranda: Leah Muller
Ferdinand: Leon Ockenden
Trinculo: Andrew Pointon
Caliban: Ben Porter
Prospero: Christopher Ravenscroft
Sebastian: Simon Roberts
Antonio: James Wallace

Director: Philip Franks
Designer: Gideon Davey
Lighting: Charles Balfour
Sound: Sean Pritchard, Jennifer Tallon Cahill
Composer: Matthew Scott
Movement: Shona Morris
Assistant director: Serdar Bilis

2005-10-12 14:45:52