Magic and Melancholy.
The Tempest, RSC, Stratford Upon Avon. 4 August
2012.
Director –David Farr.
It had been some time since my last foray into the
well trodden byways of Warwickshire’s finest. Upon my return I was eager as
always to see The RSC’s latest outpourings.
The sun shone merrily as my fried and I jostled
our way though the heaving August crowds fed the swans and explored the RST.
Following the traditional ’60 second Shakespeare’, this time complete with
flying props (and a proposal for fringe festival from members of the public...watch
this space), the whole hearty group of us breezed into the RST.
Naturally (for any of you who know my theatrical
tastes) I was terribly excited at the prospect of seeing Jonathan Slinger
again, this time in the role of Prospero.
Farr staged the island with a bleak, almost barbaric,
greyness. Rocks emerged like volcanic leftovers and everything was marked out
with a mixture of harshness and frail comforts –these being suggested by the
rickety, distressed school desk and chair.
A clear Perspex box functioned with diverse
purpose as the exterior of Prospero’s cell, the ‘sinking’ ship and the place to
which Prospero retires to plan. A simple but effective visual detail –although in
the opening scene something of the sound was swallowed, sucked into the space
thus detracting from the impact of the opening scene.
The spirit world of the play weaved neatly into
the play-world reality, with Ariel blending and merging, dressed in a matching ensemble
to Prospero in dusty suit and cropped hair.
Slinger made a powerful and unpredictable Prospero.
Playing up the mood swings and sense of loss as he slowly lets go of the only
control he has –that over his enemies and his daughter- he presented a complex character,
accentuated by moments of piquant poignancy. Displaying his usual flair for
pulling emotional resonance from a single word , like a potter pulling figures
from clay, he laid bare the patriarch’s vulnerability when telling Miranda of
their mutual back-story and stumbling, cracked voice and tearful, over the word
‘mother’ creating fathoms of emotional depth.
The scenes between Miranda (Emily Taaffe) and Ferdinand(Solomon Israel) –
sometimes a dull, saccharine vomitorium- were playfully and lightly played.
Their tentative love match, a youthful and sweet delight. Pleasingly these scenes
were also imbued with humour – I rather enjoyed Ferdinand’s laddish yet coy confession
‘for several virtues have I liked...several women’.
Caliban was a post –colonial interpretation but hardly
a sympathetic one. A large grubby man with halting speech there were only
fleeting moments of sympathy for the ‘moon calf’. It was an interesting construct
– no nobler than the bawling drunkards Stefano and Trinculo. Their scenes
together were, however, very funny playing for every ounce of silly comedy.
Whilst perhaps not a groundbreaking production,
this nonetheless had the right mixture of magic, merriment and melancholy to
make it another gem in the RSC Summer Season.
http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-tempest/
http://pinkindielondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/stratford-upon-avon.html
http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-tempest/
http://pinkindielondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/stratford-upon-avon.html
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