Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Elizabeth Freestone
William Shakespeare is not a playwright known for his brevity and The Tempest is not one of his shortest, containing a mixture of concepts and themes from some of his other plays and coming in at almost three 
hours including the interval. It needs something magical to bring it together and avoid audience shuffle, and Elizabeth Freestone’s production does its best to maintain engagement – not least due to the casting of Alex Kingston as Prospero and some bits of inspired direction.
Kingston haunts the stage like a wraith, from the doomed ship we see at the opening and throughout the following scenes, seeing without being seen, invisible to most yet a constant influence on their behaviour. She also shows that she has a talent for comedy at times too, but this is never at the expense of the gravitas and controlled anger that is needed – she is, after all, a usurped Duke intent on wreaking her revenge on those who wronged her. Yet when she finally confronts her enemies, all feeling of revenge disappears. It’s a superb performance that is up there with the best that we’ve seen in the role and any qualms that anyone might have had about casting a woman in what is traditionally a male role are quickly dispelled.
The production has been inspired by the climate emergency, and it’s one with a serious message and sustainability at its heart. The theme of climate impact is there throughout the original play, with the man-made violent storm that causes the shipwreck, to the island setting, to its uneven impact on the people affected by it. This is no better reflected than in Tom Piper’s set design, where the team has reused scenery from previous productions and scoured the skips and beaches to pick up rubbish that can be reused. The result is a hotch-potch of bits, of half-collapsed pieces of ship, a clutter of rubbish littering the shoreline – and it’s created something entirely appropriate for an island suffering the aftermath of a severe storm.
Despite the serious message of this production, this is one of Shakespeare’s comedies and Elizabeth Freestone has found more humour than you might have thought possible. In fact, at times the dialogue is drowned out by audience laughter when Ferdinand (nicely played here as a slightly hapless beach litter-picker by Joseph Payne) finds himself writhing uncontrollably on the floor at the end of Prospero’s staff. The comedy carries through the piece with humour a constant background as our stranded mariners search the island for Ferdinand, with Stephano (Simon Startin) and Trinculo (Cath Whitefield) getting increasingly drunk and dishevelled as they head on their own quest to kill Prospero egged on by a timid but outspoken Caliban (well depicted by Tommy Sim’aan), who wants to end his own servitude but is too scared to do anything about it himself. Heledd Gwynn is an energetic and increasingly irritated Ariel with Jessica Rhodes as a nicely innocent and naïve Miranda.
It’s a long piece that would probably benefit from a bit of trimming – do the spirits need to dance for that long, and, good as the music is and granted that it is critical to the play, are all of the bits of singing really necessary? It holds together through to the end though, with Kingston’s excellent performance and Freestone’s direction keeping things going.
Prospero’s final act realisation of her mortality, the acknowledgement that she has created the violent weather and a decision to change her ways seem exactly in keeping with the message behind the production. In the end, we see through the rubbish a forest, lit with a soft sunlight shining through the (real, not prop) trees – a final reminder of what there is to lose.
Runs Until 4 March 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Long but relevant
