Review: The Tempest

Stark Sands, Mandy Patinkin, Elisabeth Waterston (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Production Fails to Gather the Flotsam

By Lauren Yarger
Classic Stage Company’s rendering of “The Tempest” seems lost at sea, with its best elements rising on the swells while others crash on the beach resulting in a production that seems unsure of how to gather in the flotsam and steer a steady course.

Shakespeare’s last play explores the themes of revenge, forgiveness and restoration as magician Prospero (Mandy Patinkin) creates a storm that shipwrecks his brother Antonio (Karl Kenzler) and Alonso, the king of Naples (Michael Potts), who conspired to usurp him as the Duke of Milan and brings them to the remote island where Prospero lives with his daughter, Miranda, (Elisabeth Waterston), his slave spirit Ariel (Angel Desai) and his other slave, Caliban (Nyambi Nyambi).

Also washing up on the beach are Sebastian and Ferdinand, Alonso’s brother and son (Craig Baldwin and Stark Sands), Trinculo and Stefano, Alonso’s jester and butler (Toy Torn and Steven Rattazzi) and Gonzalo (Yusef Bulos), a counselor of Naples. Plots to kill Alonso and Prospero, grief over lost loved ones, a love match between Ferdinand and Miranda and drunken revelry ensue, but without an anchor, the production only skims the surface of the deep emotions and relationships that might have been explored.

Patinkin, with hands flailing and voice delivering lines at breakneck speed with increasing volume and intensity, conjures images of the late Maurice Evans playing Samantha’s overdramatic Shakespearean father in the TV show “Bewitched.” As we watch him battle a personal storm to force lines out without breaking into song, he seems blown off course, oddly distant from his cast mates and foundering without a lifeline from director Brian Kulick. He finally touches bottom in the second act, particularly when he gets to sing in one of the really pleasing original tunes by Christian Frederickson which are a highlight of the production.

Creatively tattooed Ariel is enchanting as she sings and works her magic, although she wears what looks like a large diaper, one of the few disappointments among Oana Botez-ban’s costumes which feature white, sand colored materials for the beach dwellers and opulent court garb for the visitors. Waterston and Sands are engaging with exchanges that are fresh and full of chemistry. Waterston succeeds in embodying Miranda with a delightful innocent charm and Sands is the most skilled of the troop in making Shakespeare’s verse sound lyrical.

Baldwin and Kenzler give a nice turn as sarcastic co-conspirators and Rattazzi makes a delightful drunk. Less defined is Caliban who, also tattooed, is depicted as a little slow witted, but played by handsome Nyambi, has no noticeable deformity to explain dialogue that describes him as misshapen and horrible to behold. Initial thoughts that casting a black actor here might be a statement about racial prejudice are negated as a multi-ethic cast is revealed.

Distracting is Jian Jung’s set design featuring a large canvas flat with a painting of the sky hung precariously over the players (in a theater that already has a cramped and claustrophobic feel) and re-angled throughout by a visible crew of four using ropes and pulleys anchored to its corners. “The sky is falling,” one observer quipped and it does remain an ominous presence over the action, especially when one character looks up to say, “Oh, heaven” to see heaven itself about a foot from his face.

A square of sand through which the actors walk barefoot is one of the most creative elements of the production, giving life and dimension to the island. It’s hauled away, however, in a labor intensive cleaning of the stage during intermission (this crew surely will have impressive upper body strength by the end of the run) presumably to allow a table prop to roll around the stage in the second half. Patinkin scatters sand around later, but it seems a memorial to the missing magical square.

It was a pleasure, though, to see many young children in the audience, apparently enjoying the experience very much. Kudos go to their parents for realizing the importance of nurturing a love of the classics from an early age.

Christians also might like to know:
Prospero is a magician and spends short amounts of time using magic to manipulate the elements and people

Spirits and Roman gods are depicted