The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 15 March 2016

Dominic Dromgoole directs Tim McMullan (Prospero), Phoebe Pryce (Miranda), Dharmesh Patel (Ferdinand), Pippa Nixon (Ariel) Fisayo Akinade (Caliban), Trevor Fox (Stephano) and Dominic Rowan (Trinculo) as part of a season of Shakespeare's four 'romance' plays.

A play which starts on a boat engulfed by a terrifying storm, and continues entirely with scenes on an island, might seem a tall order for an intimate candle-lit space with a highly decorated  wooden screen at the back of the stage and no sense of the natural world about it. However, the storm was brilliantly staged in semi-darkness, with crew and passengers careering across the stage in unison as if the whole edifice were tilting with the waves. The only questionable gambits were to have a large stylised picture of a storm displayed, with Prospero in front of it with his staff, before the action began, and to have Ariel swinging on a lantern above during the storm itself. This weakened the important revelation in the second scene that the storm, so realistically presented, is in fact only a concoction of Prospero's art.

Cleverly, the spirits at Prospero's command could be used to wheel on the token rock that signified the island setting, and to light all the candles needed after the semi-darkness of the storm. They also provided sound effects as required, including a haunting introduction to Ariel's first appearance in which the opening speech was echoed and fragmented all around the theatre. Indeed, the 'island noises' and the many songs were given full rein in this production, and both the magical banquet and the wedding masque were effectively realised using contemporary resources (sliding platforms, figures descending from the ceiling, and so forth).

Tim McMullan was a resonant and believably volatile Prospero, but  self-absorbed. The idea that he was largely controlling events as much as he could dominated his portrayal, perhaps at the expense of human warmth. The father-daughter relationship seemed courteous, and the dealings with Ariel not especially emotional (though this is of course a perfectly valid interpretative choice). Phoebe Pryce's Miranda was understandably far more engrossed with the attractive Ferdinand of Dharmeh Patel, who played a young price suffering from the presumed loss of his father, and overwhelmed by genuine feeling for Miranda, but serious and sensible.

Ariel as a female character (Pippa Nixon) is an unusual but not impossible choice (in past productions Prospero has become 'Prospera'). She had the otherworldliness required - light of foot and also in a sense self-absorbed, obedient but awaiting freedom.

The two jesters were a good comic turn, but this was partly achieved by some licence with the text, ad libbing in a music hall fashion. However, it is important that Trinculo and Stephano should raise laughs and not be outdated examples of comedy which no-one finds amusing any more. Caliban's position, now complicated by modern aversions to slavery and implied racial prejudice, was neither caricatured nor ignored by Fisayo Akinade. In fact his resentment seemed understandable, and his eloquent castigation of Prospero almost dignified; there was a curious gesture of understanding on Prospero's part right at the end when he acknowledges some responsibility for Caliban. Like many aspects of the situation, this was a dilemma that was there to be seen without being fully resolved.