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The Tempest
Playwright - William Shakespeare
Dramaturg - Francis Hagan
Director - Scott Palmer
Assistant Director - Sarah Punshon
Designer - Sarah Pauley
Design Assistant - Yen Mo
Costume Designer - Polly Lister
Company - Glasgow Rep Company
Venue & Dates - 3 - 14 July at 8:45pm Not Mons Mats
7 & 13 July at 2pm on the Main Lawn in Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Clinging to the wreckage quite a few fine performances
In this Tempest Prospero is not so much the wise magician in charge of
the weather, his island, and all who land upon it. Francis Hagan
has him wrestling with his powers, never certain how much to use, struggling
to control the spells' forces. As for Prospero's vocal, physical presence
and underlying charisma, no matter what Hagan does he is unable to conjure
them from his own bag of tricks. The Prospero he gives us is a weak, deranged
yet evil man, it's a peculiar reading of Shakespeare's text,and his difficulties
with his voice, shared by a few others in the company, compound it.*
The odd interpretation of the exiled Duke of Milan in this Tempest has
affected the relationship between his daughter Miranda and the shipwrecked
son of the King of Naples, Ferdinand. Here Miranda is not the innocent
reared on an island inhabited only by Prospero, Ariel and her father's
other constrained spirits and the savage Caliban. In this version her
isolation has not made her naive but a psychologically disturbed young
woman unable to respond to Ferdinand as a growing lover. The violence
to the text in these characterisations presumably engineered by Hagan
or/and Palmer is most unsettling and could have sunk completely this powerful
play.
But there are clinging to the wreckage quite a few fine performances and
some reintrepretation that works. Most outstanding is Jennifer Dick's
Caliban gold horned, hairy in awful places, inhabiting a species and a
weird sex of its own. The red leather and feathered Ariel, Katherine
Morley visibly pulled back from flying free also is a fantastic creature.
Amongst the mortals, the mobile faced Seth Hardwick is Trinculo, while
his companion, in an excellent comic and drunkenly deep double act, is
Jamie Neil as the butler Stephano. Both only just masters of their booze
filled brains but every word and movement like Ariel and Caliban are well
delivered. In the remaining survivors of the storm Antonio has become
the ursping Duchess of Milan Antonia in the shape of Emma Larsson,
evening dress sheathed and spikly malevolent, Gonzalo is here Gonzala
and is a wise but younger consellor than usual in a well judged performance
by Carrie Westwater. Tim Barrow makes the most of his Sebastian,
a sort of dilettante married to the Lady Macbeth like Antonia, the shifts
of some roles to the female works well and increases the feeling of a
wholly decadent court where sex and worldly power have corrupted almost
all.
The set using discarded packing cases and a central circular multi-level
stage possibly made from one of De Vinci's extraordinary mechanical drawings
sits well in the Gardens. But the decision to place the audience down
rather than uphill from playing area is unfortunate as we don't always
retain the benefits of centre raised set. The imaginative costumes for
Caliban and Ariel are very memorable. All in all there is much rescued
unmarred from this Tempest, hopefully whatever caused the aberration will
be exorcised.
© Thelma Good 13 July 2002
*A general comment about actors and the ability to project.
For the out of doors productions it's clear all companies should have
a voice expert in their team as vocally well trained actors are sadly
more rare than they should be. Even now in the age of technology nothing
works as well or as delicately as a naturally projected voice, and a person
who doesn't have one I don't think is fully a real actor. It is still
how an actor best communicates, if you breath right, you move right. Rant
off.
Other Glasgow Rep Productions
As You
Like it Summer 2002
Kabuki -
Titus Spring/Summmer 2002
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