There is a certain irony in that at the same time as Shakespeare’s Globe in London has parted company with its new(ish) director Emma Rice for being too technical, too untraditional and too innovative, that other great bastion dedicated to the works of the Bard, the Royal Shakespeare Company, has mounted a production that is, at times, more like a video game than a stage play. The Tempest is all giant projections and computer generated imagery – a modern version of smoke and mirrors, although there was some real smoke here too.
I must confess to having a bit of a soft spot for The Tempest as it was the play I studied (I use the term loosely) for my GCE and it was probably the first professional Shakespeare I saw on stage. It is all about magic and this production certainly is that, and no mistake. Most of the special effects took place in the first half hour with the storm and with Ariel’s first appearance and jolly spectacular they were too. In fact, visually the production was a treat, the basic set consisting of the interior of the towering, rotting hulk of a galleon, its giant spars reaching high above the stage, encasing it like the interior of a giant rib cage. The costumes were a mish-mash of styles but worked well. Alonso, Antonio and the rest of the shipwrecked royals were in pseudo-Victorian military uniforms, Ariel was in a psychedelic body stocking and Trinculo was a rather Fellini-ish clown.
However, while Miranda looked suitably bedraggled and windswept and Caliban looked like something you would not want to find on the sole of your shoe, Simon Russell Beale’s Prospero seemed to have just come from a Mayfair barber, with his neat hair and and trimmed, nicely shaped and well-manicured beard. And, without his wizard’s cloak, he seemed dressed for a night at home in front of the telly with a bag of crisps and a can of Stella. He was much too clean and kempt and I found his performance rather dry and dull, lacking any of the enchantment and power the character demands.
For me the best and most enjoyable performances came from Simon Trinder as Trinculo, Tony Jayawardena as Stephano and Joe Dixon as the put-upon Caliban. I liked Jenny Rainsford as Miranda although this was not the young, wide-eyed innocent one usually gets.
The other high-spot for me was at the beginning of the masque in Act IV with Honour, riches, marriage-blessing . . . beautifully sung by Samantha Hay as Ceres and Jennifer Whitton as Juno. The rest of the sun-drenched, über-kitsch masque was perhaps a bit too long and elaborate but nevertheless visually pretty spectacular. In fact, all the special effects worked well with the best being the first time we see Ariel and the sequence showing him being released from the tree.
Overall a very enjoyable production of The Tempest, and one that is very aware that it is being presented as the RSC’s Christmas show. Audiences’ jaws will drop and no-one will be able to deny they have seen something innovative and very clever and witnessed things they have never seen on a stage before. While not quite a triumph of style over content I think, on balance, style just had the edge. Oh, and another thing – why do they all pronounce Milan as Millan? And, if it’s the Duke of Millan, why not the King of Napples? I’m only asking. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted 24th November 2016
