Opinion: New Talent In A Riotous 'Tempest'

The Tempest," a magical tale of shipwreck and reconciliation, was the last complete play Shakespeare wrote before retiring from tumultuous London to a quiet country gentleman's life in Stratford.

Behind him were the epic histories, the towering tragedies and rowdy farces. This is a comedy of love and forgiveness, the work of a mature playwright lured, as he mellowed, by the pleasures of peace.

Perhaps symbolically, our hero, Prospero, surrenders his occult powers to "retire me to my Milan, where every third thought shall be my grave." We do not feel his first and second thoughts will be lugubrious at all, but rather graced by serenity and joy.

Sailors' Yarns

Set on an imaginary island, "The Tempest," first performed in 1611, was no doubt inspired by tall tales of the New World told by explorers bent on discovering a new trade route to the Orient.

According to Rudyard Kipling, a reference to "the still-vexed Bermoothes" in Act I probably reflects the popular fascination with a recent shipwreck in Bermuda.

In a letter to the London Spectator about the creative process, Kipling theorized that Shakespeare may have picked up ideas for incidents in his play from "nothing more promising in fact than the chattering of a half-tipsy sailor at the theatre."

Surprising Shapes

Whatever the provenance of "The Tempest," it remains, despite its production problems, one of the Bard's most beguiling plays, and perhaps his most popular.

Daunting stage directions like "Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet," and "Enter divers Spirits in shape of dogs and hounds," may challenge directors, but their inventive solutions have electrified audiences for centuries.

Dark Horse Productions' "Tempest" -- which opened on Friday at Guild Hall's John Drew Theater and will be performed again tonight through Saturday and next Thursday through Dec. 14 at 8 and at 5 p.m. on Sunday and Dec. 15 -- brings us many such ingenious and thrilling surprises, along with riotous slapstick episodes and an array of glittering, lovely moments.

It also strays on occasion, with performances and directorial decisions varying greatly. But more of this later; now for the good parts.

A World Laid Waste

Glyde Hart, Dark Horse's artistic director and our director here, has tellingly situated her "Tempest" in an apocalyptic future.

In Dominique De Cock's bluntly rashy set, Shakespeare's desert island appears as an industrial dump. Prospero's cell is hidden behind the rusting grille of an abandoned tractor-trailer. We're in a world laid waste by brutal progress.

The evening opens with a stunning display of thunder and lightning as the tempest rages to the drums of Ms. Hart and her guest artists, while dancing "waves" (Prospero's spirits) pound up the aisle and dash against the sinking ship on stage.

Cast Adrift

Sailors and noble passengers rock on the heaving deck; the theater is a storm-tossed sea; the wreck is near.

The Oscar for best actress goes to the fantastically charismatic Eve Montgomery as Ariel. A truly splendid John Drew debut.

The scene shifts to the island, where Miranda (Sarah Reilly), daughter of Prospero (Christopher Linn), accuses him of magically brewing up the storm. We learn that Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, and that the shipwrecked nobles are his mortal enemies.

Twelve years ago, Alonso (Richard H. Schneider), King of Naples, and Sebastian (Steve Lilja), his brother, conspired with the evil Antonio (Evan Thomas), Prospero's brother, to usurp his dukedom and set both father and daughter adrift in a frail boat, which, however, miraculously brought them ashore.

Accompanying Alonso is his son Ferdinand (Michael King), who, of course, falls in love with Miranda of the opposing royal house. But since this is a comedy not of errors but of the righting of wrongs, we are assured of a happy ending to the family feud.

Two spirits also inhabit the island: Ariel (Eve Montgomery), "an airy sprite" who implements Prospero's magic and, for some, represents the creative leaps of poetry, and Caliban (Tom Leo), "a savage and deformed slave," a half-beast who might personify the more lumbering gait of prose; he certainly was modeled on the myriad New World monsters reported by Sir Walter Raleigh and other explorers.

Then there are Shakespeare's beloved buffoons: Trinculo (Ruby Rathbone), a jester, and Stephano (T.J. Parlette), a drunken butler who enthralls Caliban with his "celestial liquor," the first of the great "enablers."

The Oscar for best actor of the evening goes to Mr. King as Ferdinand, in this reviewer's humble opinion. His whoops of boyish exuberance at the discovery of first love, his headlong passion, steal not only Miranda's heart, but the audience's as well.

Solid Performances

As for supporting actor, Tom Leo brings a mysterious resonance to his Caliban, grappling us to his beastliness as if he were some endangered species we must care about at the peril of our own humanity.

As Prospero, Mr. Linn has a world-weary cynicism that, oddly, works very well in his complicated role, and is a nice dramatic contrast to his Jesus-like looks.

Mr. Parlette is also fun, as is the hilarious Ms. Rathbone. Mr. Thomas makes a perfectly wicked Antonio, and Jesse St. Louis a compassionate counselor, Gonzalo. Messrs. Lilja and Schneider give solid performances.

Charismatic Ariel

The Oscar for best actress goes to the fantastically charismatic Ms. Montgomery and her Ariel. What a beautiful sprite she makes, with a mischievous edge, an impish twinkle, and the perfect body of the talented dancer she is.

A graduate of the Gene Frankel Theatre Workshop in New York, with films, commercials, and music videos to her credit, she's a stellar addition to the East End acting pool. We witness a truly splendid John Drew debut.

Ms. Reilly's Miranda, however, is sweet but not as vivid as she might be.

The production values are top-notch: Randy Lee Hendler's choreography, Steven Espach's lighting, Laura Flynn's musical direction and composition, and Ms. De Cock's designs.

But the direction falters at times, and the performances seem to lose concentration and fade into inaudibility. We are also confused by inconsistent anachronisms and apparently random leaps backward and forward in time.

Especially the gestures and costumes don't seem to know what century this is. There'll be an Elvis Presley pelvic thrust followed by a courtly bow, or street-gang guns and combat pants alongside Elizabethan sabers and doublets. The device doesn't quite work.

The dialogue sometimes falters, too, not unnaturally losing its way in Shakespeare's demanding language and lapsing into modern rhythms.

Indulgence

But hey, English children have had Shakespeare read to them so long at bedtime that the Bard's speech patterns seem as familiar as "The Cat in the Hat" rhyme schemes are to us.

And hey, as Al Pacino points out in his new film, "Looking for Richard," Shakespearean lines are extremely difficult even for highly trained American professionals to deliver well-- for amateur actors, nearly impossible.

So maybe it's picky to quibble about diction, and perhaps lapses must be forgiven in the joyful spirit of the evening. As Prospero entreats the audience in the play's epilogue:

As you from crimes would pardoned be,

Let your indulgence set me free.