THE TEMPEST

A review by Abigail Kathleen

A storm, violent and destructive, reveals an enchanted island ruled by Prospero. In creating this fierce and ferocious tempest she wrecks a passing ship and washes her enemies upon the shore.

When they wake they find themselves lost on a fantastical island where nothing is as it seems. A story of magic, love, revenge and forgiveness.

Thought to have been his last, the comedy that is The Tempest, was written by William Shakespeare. For only two weeks the Lazarus Theatre Production has brought his final play to the Greenwich Theatre.

Whilst I love the work of Shakespeare, I must be honest and say that my understanding of it is very minimal, so I have to rely on the actors delivery and performance to be able to follow the story along. I applaud the cast as they delivered Shakespeare’s words flawlessly, they performed with grace and ease, there was emotion oozing from every word and action.

The stage set up was a basic three sided stage with a hexagon of strip lighting in the centre and a drop in the front of the stage. Props were minimal with the use of chairs for platforms, umbrellas for swords and at one point two characters had blue helium balloons attached to float over their heads, in honesty, I still can’t work out their relevance. The greatest prop was the demon wings crafted with fabric and poles that had to be operated by four cast members whilst in the centre the spirit Ariel was attached. It was a magnificent ending to the first act.

The second act opened beautifully with a wedding scene. Confetti falling from above, rainbow umbrellas dotted about and the grand costumes and crowns of the gods blessing the wedding.

The beauty of performing a Shakespeare play as that the words are so fluent and descriptive, there’s no need for flashy sets and props as long as the actors are hugely talented, which in this case they were. I was on a rollercoaster of emotions where one minute I am feeling the chill of the shipwreck and story of betrayal, warmth of the love and laughed at the humour delivered by the drunken fools (what’s a Shakespeare play without a drunken fool!).

The performance was contemporary and was brought into the modern world with gender changes, rather than a tale of Prince falls for young lady, it was boy meets boy, rather than Prospero being betrayed by his brother, she was betrayed by her sister.

I was throughly captivated throughout the entire performance, it was funny, emotional and tragic. The delivery was outstanding on all counts, staging, direction & performance.