Birmingham Royal Ballet: The Tempest, October 2016

[zxDaveM]

David Bintley's new 'The Tempest' for Birmingham Royal Ballet as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations. It opens in the Birmingham Hippodrome this week, before coming to London's Sadlers Wells later in the month
 
Here are some photos:



Iain MacKay as Prospero
© Dave Morgan.
Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr



Joseph Caley, Jenna Roberts (Ferdinand, Miranda)
© Dave Morgan.
Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr



Celine Gittens, Tzu-Chao Chou (Ceres, Pan)
© Dave Morgan.
Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

See more...
Set from DanceTabs: BRB - The Tempest
Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

[Jan McNulty]

Fabulous photographs Dave.

 

Has anyone seen it yet?  I'm there on Wednesday and would love to hear what anyone else thinks.

[Tony Newcombe]

I was at the Saturday evening performance. It was a spectacular evening of wonderful dancing.

Audience reaction at finale was very enthusiastic and you could see the appreciation in the dancer's faces.

Music, design and lighting created a magical effect.

[follycat]

Will be watching on Saturday evening. Daughter in company but costumes and make may make her tricky to spot!

[Alice Shortcake]

I'll be at the matinee on the 8th. It looks gorgeous!

[Anon2]

Will be watching on Saturday evening. Daughter in company but costumes and make may make her tricky to spot!

My dd will be trying to spot your daughter (if I've got the right person!) at the matinee. Dd a little in awe of her and what she has achieved.

[follycat]

Not sure if she is in matinee?! Some weird headdresses and masks so I'm awaiting instructions as to how to spot her....looking forward to it though...

[Jan McNulty]

I saw three performances of The Tempest this week, on Wednesday and both on Thursday.

 

I absolutely LOVED act 1 and by the end of Wednesday night detested about 90% of act 2.  By Thursday night, I had become a bit more accustomed to act 2 and only detested about 50% of it!  I adored the set and costumes but I found the score challenging.  The lighting was dim but I think it may still be a work in progress as it seemed much brighter (but still dimmish) on Thursday evening.  Talking to various people I know that a lot of people really liked act 2, so this is just my personal opinion.

 

Act 1 is magnificent and covers most of the story of The Tempest.  Act 1 shows the sailors on Alonso's ship enjoying a (very enjoyable) hornpipe before the storm starts.  I think the storm is very cleverly and effectively done.  We see Ferdinand being washed overboard first and then Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio.

 

We are introduced to Prospero, Miranda and Caliban.  When Prospero and Miranda come across Ferdinand you could see (which I thought was a lovely subtle touch) that Prospero has organised this so that the youngsters will meet.  Their meeting pdd is beautiful and tender.

 

Ferdinand is forced into working for Prospero and the young couple continue to fall in love.

 

Meanwhile Antonio plots with Sebastian to overthrow Alonso.  Caliban meets Trinculo and Stephano (some hilarious scenes).

 

Everything is overseen by Ariel (who has some lovely virtuoso choreography).

 

At the end of the act Ferdinand and Miranda declare their love in a sublime, romantic duet and Prospero looks on unseen with approval.

 

If you have read the synopsis (also on the back of the cast sheet) or are familiar with The Tempest it is very easy to follow this act.

 

My dry words aren't really doing it justice, I really did find it sumptuous and I did find it easy to follow the plot.

 

Act 2 starts off with great promise - more from Caliban and his new chums and Prospero organising a masque to celebrate the love of Ferdinand and Miranda.  I absolutely ADORE  the segment with Neptune.  We also see Ariel organising the "banquet" for Alonso and Co and then coming on as a Harpy (amazing costume) to accuse them of their crimes (including showing clearly how Prospero and Miranda came to be on the island).

 

It was the section with the dancers with the straw hats and the three goddesses and Pan where I lost the will to live (and that did not change through the three performances).  They may be part of the text of the play but I really don't see that they added any value to the ballet (no matter how beautiful the dancing).

 

Then everything comes together at the end.  I found the final section very moving, particularly when Caliban realises he has regained control of his island.

 

There is a fantastic, spirit lifting finale after the curtain falls, so don't leave the auditorium too soon!

 

One thing that shone out through all 3 shows was the quality of all the dancers' performances (even in the sections I didn't like).  There are some fabulous roles for the men.  Iain Mackay's stage presence as Prospero in 2 casts was almost overwhelming - he was wonderful.  In the other cast Yasuo Atsuji was also outstanding and brought a lot of humanity to the character too.  All three Ferdinands and Mirandas were very different but equally sublime (Yaoqian Shang/William Bracewell, Jenna Robers/Joe Caley and Momoko Hirata/Cesar Morales).  All three Calibans (Tyrone Singleton, Brandon Lawrence and Lachlan Monaghan) brought out the complexities of the character with layered performances and all three of them were incredibly moving in the final scene of the production.  I loved all three Ariels (Mathias Dingman, Max Maslen and Tzu-Chao Chou), again all different but equally great interpretations.  I must also mention Lachlan Monaghan as Neptune - he was absolutely spectacular!  It really doesn't matter which cast you see as they are all splendid.

 

All in all, I think it is definitely worth seeing and I am looking to another three performances in Sunderland in a couple of weeks.

[Jan McNulty]

Here's the link to the official trailer:

 

[Jan McNulty]

Member Terpsichore has reviewed The Tempest on her blog:

 

http://jelterps.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-tempest.html

[Tony Newcombe]

Member Terpsichore has reviewed The Tempest on her blog:

 

http://jelterps.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-tempest.html

Nice counter review to that of The Sunday Times critic who describes Bintley as a choreographer of moderate talent

[Jan McNulty]

Nice counter review to that of The Sunday Times critic who describes Bintley as a choreographer of moderate talent

 

 

 

I find that unbelievable Tony!  David Bintley (and I don't slavishly adore all his productions) has made several full length masterpieces and a number of brilliant one-acters.  I think his choreography is very varied and that he is extremely talented.  I'm glad I haven't wasted one of my views on reading the ST review!

[MAB]

Can still remember the Nureyev version with Dowell as Prospero and Eagling as Arial (on a wire) it was all very busy.

 

Perhaps choreographers could draw inspiration from the Derek Jarman film, can never forget Elisabeth Welch singing Stormy Weather whilst surrounded by all those sailor boys.

[Jan McNulty]

Can still remember the Nureyev version with Dowell as Prospero and Eagling as Arial (on a wire) it was all very busy.

 

Perhaps choreographers could draw inspiration from the Derek Jarman film, can never forget Elisabeth Welch singing Stormy Weather whilst surrounded by all those sailor boys.

 

 

 

But hopefully you can't remember the Peter Greenaway film Prospero's Books - one of my all time worst films!!

 

I forgot to mention that Ariel does have some ariel work but not as much as I was expecting.  Ferdinand is floated through the sea on wires too.

[Two Pigeons]

I think the problem with David Bintley in recent years is that he seems to have replaced quality with quantity. This is probably the flip side of directing a company which is overflowing with talent but subject to diminishing resources. I also find some of his specially commissioned scores hard to listen to (let alone dance) and sometimes are just too long for his invention.

 

There are works of his which I just love and would wish to see more often. Examples of these would be Tombeaux, Galanteries and Hobson's Choice. However, along the way there have been too many potboilers like Take 5 and Orpheus.

 

I don't like to disagree with Janet as BRB fans should stick together but I don't necessarily agree that he has created several full Length masterpieces. He has created several very worthy pieces of entertainment, pretty much always distinguished with excellent design, but I wouldn't call them masterpieces. La Fille Mal Gardee is a masterpiece, works like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Far From the Madding Crowd just aren't.

 

I do not wish to appear disrespectful of Mr Bintley when I say this as I feel we are very lucky to have him as a director in the classic Royal Ballet heritage mould. However, I feel that in general his earlier work is superior to his later and I am really sorry that Paul Reade died so young.

[Terpsichore]

I find that unbelievable Tony!  David Bintley (and I don't slavishly adore all his productions) has made several full length masterpieces and a number of brilliant one-acters.  I think his choreography is very varied and that he is extremely talented.  I'm glad I haven't wasted one of my views on reading the ST review!

 

Quite agree with you Janet. 

 

I have often been out of step with newspaper critics and occasionally with  majority opinion on this forum.

 

Press reviews are a matter of impression and one person's meat is another person's poison.

 

Similarly one person's opinion is as authoritative as the next person's. Sometimes the view of a child or a first time ballet goer can be particularly instructive.

[David]

Janet - I just want to say that I was at the first night in Birmingham and thoroughly endorse, and thank you, for your detailed and spot-on analysis. For me Bintley's Tempest  is a splendid piece, true to the spirit of  Shakespeare's work and one that I will want to see again and again.

 

HOWEVER ..... that second act! The masque began brilliantly and you are so right about the splendid individual contributions - but it just went on and on and on. It did finally get back on track and finished on a high. I liked Prospero's handing of the crown to Caliban, returning the island to him but the sight of Ariel sobbing at the end struck a false note for me - the essence of Ariel is that he is not human and not subject to human emotions - surely he should have been exultant that he had finally achieved his freedom?

 

But these are details. This is a high calibre production and should be retained.

 

I have not been able to get over to see it again so do please tell us if the second act is being tightened up.

[Jan McNulty]

I'm seeing it again in Sunderland so I will be interested to see if there has been any tweaking.  I suspect that for this run it will only be minor tweaking.

[Pulcinella]

Yesterday afternoon Ferdinand (Cesar Morales) didn't fly on when he was supposed to be shown drowning/swimming. Whether this was a one off or it has been changed permanently it will be interesting to find out. I saw all three casts in Birmingham and overall enjoyed the second cast the most (Shang/Bracewell/MackayLawrence/Maslen). This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the other casts as well. I also find the Masque section goes on too long and some of the choreography for the corps is very repetitive. I also find the ending with Ariel not right as Prospero is supposed to set him free but just seems to leave him.

[trog]

I saw two performances, Friday evening and Saturday matinee and I thought is was a knock out! Act I is visually stunning, with the swimming scenes for Ariel and Ferdinand (although as noted above not in the matinee), the silk waves and the lighting, really invoking the storm. It is also very clever the way the score goes from sound effects to music.

When we reached the masque in Act II, I thought "ah - it's gone into bonkers mode". There's nothing wrong with a ballet going a bit bonkers and I just let it wash over me. The only bit of this that I didn't like was the blonde wigs for the three goddesses. On some cast members they just don't work.

I very much liked the sea creatures costumes; they really give the impression that we're underwater.

The only other ballet version of The Tempest that I have seen is Darius James' (Ballet Cymru) and that was a number of years ago. I remember thinking then that The Tempest is not the best work to translate into a ballet, and I haven't changed my mind.

 

I would very much like to see it again, so I hope that it remains with the company. There is no guarentee - there are at least three works that I'd like to see again that have vanished from the company's repertoire.

Neil Norman in The Stage said ‘spectacular effects, but not enough dancing’ - the effects certainly are spectacular, but Bintley couldn't fit on more dancing if he tried - it's none stop.

Janet: Prospero's Books - I agree - I used to be a Peter Greenaway fan, but I have found pretty much everything after Dante unwatchable.

Two Pigeons: I'm afraid I find La Fille Mal Gardee a complete borefest (apart from the chickens), were as I very much like Beauty and the Beast and Take 5.

[Jan McNulty]

I agree with Trog about B&B and Take 5 and I also was besotted with Orpheus.  I personally think Madding Crowd is a masterpiece.

 

I absolutely do not agree with Trog about Fille ... but he knows that!

 

On Thursday I was on the front row of the stalls and it looked as though both Koen Kessels and Philip Ellis were conducting the waves!  I assume they were getting into the zone for the shells to start.  The sound of the waves was not nearly as loud sitting on the front row (row E) as it had been on Wednesday night sitting on row L.

[Alice Shortcake]

I must confess to being rather underwhelmed by "The Tempest". The play has never struck me as being an obvious choice for adaptation as a ballet, although neither did "The Winter's Tale" and I love the RB version.

 

Things I liked: the Ferdinand/Miranda scenes, the puppet Miranda, Caliban's giant whelk disguise, parts of the masque (which went on for much too long, as did the rustic festival in "The Winter's Tale"), and the choreographed curtain call. The latter reminded me of the dances performed by the entire cast at the end of Shakespeare productions at the Globe.

 

Things I didn't like: the murky lighting, most of the costumes and the lacklustre score. The ending also grated on me - as has already been mentioned, Ariel isn't granted the freedom he yearned for throughout the play. And I've always suspected that Caliban was probably kidnapped by Trinculo and Stephano and sold to a freak show, so the scene in which Prospero crowns him king of the island didn't ring true to me.

 

At the end of the day I don't think "The Tempest" works very well without Shakespeare's words.

 

Totally OT, but...HOLY POINTE SHOES, BATMAN! I haven't been to Birmingham for over twenty years and didn't know that the railway station and part of the city centre had been razed to the ground and rebuilt. The only thing I recognised was the Rotunda. My mind went completely blank, I got lost and had I not asked for directions I wouldn't have reached the Hippodrome in time. Even the theatre had changed beyond recognition - not until I took my seat did I recognise the auditorium so familiar to me in the 80s and 90s!

[alison]

Wow, that must have been an extreme shock!  I had enough trouble the first time I went there after New Street Station had been redone, but at least I knew about the Bullring and everything else in advance.

[bridiem]

I saw this last night. I liked the scenery (especially the ship at the end) and some of the costumes and I thought the dancers were excellent especially Iain Mackay as Prospero. And I liked exactly the same parts of the production as Alice Shortcake!! But unfortunately disliked or was baffled by most of the rest. The music was a big problem for me - lacking drama, rise and fall, interest. (One big element in the masque just seemed to stop/peter out at the end which seemed very odd.) And I found a lot of the choreography repetitive and not very interesting. I also had very little idea of what was happening in most of Act 2 in spite of having read the programme note. The ending was moving but seemed to come out of nowhere; and it didn't involve dance! So in the end I felt frustrated. I feel as if perhaps there's a very good one-act ballet in there (preferably to different music). But great work by the dancers (and it did get a great response from the audience).

[Bruce]

At the end of the day I don't think "The Tempest" works very well without Shakespeare's words.

 

 

Yep.

 

Don't often do this but here is the last para of Jann Parry's review of Tempest:

 

"Bintley has treated Shakespeare’s drama as a masque, full of spectacle, music and dancing, with elusive characters that are more allegorical than realistic. It doesn’t work as a narrative ballet because the sub-plots are too complicated and the main characters’ motives unclear without a printed synopsis. The love story between Miranda and Ferdinand is uninvolving because it’s so swift (though Jenna Roberts is captivating in her frank innocence). The staging and performances are pleasing, tantalising in the promise of richer interpretations. Bintley is not alone in finding that The Tempest proves intractable as a ballet: plenty of choreographers have had a go without resounding success – Glen Tetley, Nureyev, Alexei Ratmansky and Crystal Pite, among others. It’s best left alone."

 

Full review:

http://dancetabs.com/2016/10/birmingham-royal-ballet-the-tempest-london/

 

I was at the premiere in Birmingham and feel the same - not one of Bintley's best at all.

[Ian Macmillan]

Taking up the issue of the apparent difficulty of creating a satisfactory ballet from The Tempest and the suggestions that there might be a reasonable one-act piece somewhere in there, I'm taken back at least 10 years to when Cathy Marston was choreographer in-residence for what was, I think, then called ROH2.  When Tom Adès Tempest opera was premiered upstairs on the main stage, she was asked to create something in parallel for The Linbury and came up with Before the tempest ..... after the storm.  As the title suggests, this was in two distinct parts that bracket Shakespeare's original.  As I recall it now, Before dealt with the birth of Caliban - dark, pretty grotesque and hard going.  After took Ariel's story on and was a good deal airier and more enjoyable than the first part, set as I recall mainly on Jenny Tattersall.

 

 http://www.cathymarston.com/beforethetempest.html

[Mary]

Second time I have seen Lachlan Monaghan this week- his Neptune was fizzing with excitement and technical verve- superb performance. One to watch.

 

I thought the effects were very nice and it was good to see very imaginative use made of relatively low tech options- the little model boat, sparkling on the sea, the silk sheets billowing as waves, the birds wafted through the air on fishing rods. All beautiful. The flying sequences unusually well done and entirely right for the piece.  I also liked very much the opening and closing 'sea effects' from the score. (A bit hard to hear at times, at first I thought it might be crisp packets...)

 

 I have to agree overall it didn't quite work;  the masque should not have taken over as it did, (oh no not those straw hats again !)  and for me the music just didn't create drama sufficiently. It is a very hard play to turn into a ballet. I wonder what might work better that hasn't been done to death.

 

But the dancers were great and the stage looked beautiful .

[Beryl H]

Saw last night's marvellous cast, this is my type of ballet, full of dancing in a mostly elegant classical style, the music was the weakest element for me, although it is hard to take in a new score at once, did prefer it to The Winter's Tale though. Agree with others that the ending doesn't really work, Iain Mackay is very moving and the music acquires new depth here but it falls a little flat.

 

David Bintley has created some great solo's for Ariel, Caliban, Neptune, Pan, and three girls in the masque, last night they were Max Maslen, Brandon Lawrence, Lachlan Monaghan, Tzu Chao Chou,Samara Downs, Brooke Ray and Yijing Zhang, and they were superb,Yaoqian Shang and William Bracewell were charming as Miranda and Ferdinand, of course Iain Mackay was a strong Prospero. The dance itself is always the most important part of any ballet for me, and I found the choreography very fine in the pdd and solo's, the special effects were excellent too but didn't dominate!

[Bruce Wall]

Saw The Tempest last night (the originating cast) and I have to confess that I was underwhelmed by the construct of the core creative forces short of the design department.  The focus(es) of Bintley's concept seemed most oft to stutter being all dressed up with largely nowhere to go.  Shakespeare's majestic play deserved a more effective distillment - much as his Othello had received only a few night's before in the performance of Limon's The Moor's Pavane, a work created over half a century earlier.  For me it was a much more imaginative and direct response and brought a much fresher reflection of its source text to the Bard's table.

 

This Tempest's treatise was over-stuffed, over complicated, over chewed and unnecessarily muddy.  I should here confess that I have felt that way about much of Bintley's full length (or indeed one act) works, preferring as I do his earlier canon (Gallentries, Tombeaux, etc., certainly ... and certainly last season's The King Dances - which I found a refreshing return to form for him.  His take on the latter's established structure had a happily direct focus.).  

 

Here - for me - the composer and choreographer bit off more than the gloriously simplistic world or ballet can chew.  The dancers/orchestra most often were left to simply spit it out which they did - as ever with this Company - handsomely.  Very often I just didn't see/understand the immediate need of some of these characters to dance (where, in fact, they did).  The pantomime-like interludes too sometimes seemed vapid.  Some simply didn't appear to be sufficiently well established to be intelligible.  Furthermore the viewer response they received seemed to come from select pockets.  Moreover, having Prospero's historical flashback in the second act was very confusing for many I should have thought.  

 

Rae Smith's design intrigued because it [a] secured an immediate relationship with its audience as a slice of humanity [i adored Caliban's shell] and because it  was not anywhere near as repetitive as evidenced in other areas.  The audience last night did cheer at the end, but there was a significant part of me that wondered if they did in fact know who/what they were applauding?  If there had been a survey at the end as to who Sebastian was I'm sure you would have got a wide array of answers.  That crucial clarity - in terms of the dance, music and lighting - was not here, I fear, king.  

 

I would personally love to see Bintley offer more full length (or one act) narrative ballet opportunities to other, younger, promising and proven choreographers - much as he did in the case of Jessica Lange's enchanting Wink - and much as David Nixon refreshingly now seems determined to do with Northern Ballet.  More credit to Nixon. Bintley has built such a fine company with the current BRB team.  I would hope he can see how potently that speaks for itself and can take pride in such.  Surely Sir Peter Wright - while he is about - could serve as a wonderful mentor to the new master dance makers being himself a master-in-chief in terms of balletic story telling.  

 

Just a another brief call out for the very talented Lachlan Monaghan who dazzled in his balletic swim as Neptune.  

Edited October 16, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[Two Pigeons]

Excellent posting by Bruce. just one small point. Hobson's Choicecwas originally in two acts. Never that I remember it being just one. I think it was choreographed this way so that it could follow Theme and Variations during its first run.

[Alice Shortcake]

 

 I have to agree overall it didn't quite work;  the masque should not have taken over as it did, (oh no not those straw hats again !)  and for me the music just didn't create drama sufficiently. It is a very hard play to turn into a ballet. I wonder what might work better that hasn't been done to death.

 

Oh, those awful straw hats - straight out of a 1940s musical. I half expected Carmen Miranda to make an entrance!

 

As a hardcore Shakespeare fan I have to admit that there are very few ballet/opera adaptations of his plays that I really enjoy. There's a reason why 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Taming of the Shrew' are so attractive to choreographers - they're early plays with relatively simple plots and broadly drawn characters. The so-called "romances" are a different kettle of fish, which made Wheeldon's success with 'The Winter's Tale' all the more impressive (although the final Leontes/Hermione pas de deux, lovely as it was, didn't ring true to me as Hermione barely registers Leontes' presence in the play). I wonder what the right choreographer might make of 'Cymbeline'? Stolen children, parted lovers, battle scenes, evil stepmother...all human life is here!

[Richard Soper]

Having read the many (often refreshingly conflicting!) comments in the forum about this, I really didn't know what I was in for at Sadlers' Wells last night. After Janet's comments, I was was especially cautious after the interval, but I needn't have worried...I actually enjoyed it all.

 

Shakespeare it ain't, and Alice and others have made the point well that The Tempest is a complex drama, and it's hard to see how many of the more metaphysical themes could be woven into dance as part of a wider narrative. That said, I thought Bintley did really well in taking the framework of the story and turning it into something which was satisfying as a whole and contained some moments of genuine beauty.

 

The design of this production was outstanding, and I especially loved the storm scene – created low-tech with huge painted sheets and strobes. For the majority of the action, stage and scenery are kept simple, which makes the ultimate revelation of the ship in the final scene especially effective.

 

Within the dances themselves there was much to like – I particularly enjoyed the contrast between Miranda's encounter with Caliban and her pdd with Ferdinand which followed it. I didn't find the masque in Act 2 overlong at all, and the same point which Terpsicore makes in her blog about the place of these showpiece diversions in classical ballet occurred to me as I was watching it – I actually felt it was a rather successful attempt to give the act a familiar structure. But like Janet, Alice and others, I really didn't like the straw hats and yokel outfits – the costuming pulled in all sorts of distracting references (line dancing?) - and I thought was quite destructive of the mood, which was otherwise well built up. I liked Neptune too (although not the over-costumed fish-people), but also loved the three goddesses. All four of these parts were beautifully danced Lachlan Monaghan, Celine Gittens, Yvette Knight and Delia Matthews. Lachlan and Yvette in particular were mesmerising. It was a neat touch too to have these three female dancers present as Prospera and her attendants in the flash back sequence to the moment of the usurpation, allowing them to play parts in both the highest and lowest moments of the narrative.

 

Having disparaged the fish costumes and straw hats, I must also mention how effective I thought the costuming and design treatment (and indeed the dancing!) of the Spirits of the Feast and the Spirits as Hunting Hounds were. Both wonderfully conveyed the respective moods of their sequences (of ghostly fear and pursuit terror).

 

Iain Mackay, Tyrone Singleton and Mathias Dingman all gave very strong performances as Prospero, Caliban and Ariel respectively, and Jenna Roberts totally and beautifully captured the role of Miranda, with some fine classical dancing.

 

As for the music, I settled into it as the performance progressed. There were some (fairly brief on reflection) moments in the first act when I wondered what kind of dialogue Bintley and Beamish must have had, but they soon passed, and overall I thought the score was fresh, creative and appropriate to the ballet.

 

Finally, I loved the choreographed curtain call. The Tempest was originally classified as a comedy (presumably because of the wedding) and it does have a happy ending after all, so this uplifting full-cast coda fitted here really well I thought.

 

As to just how significant a ballet Bintley has created, I'm not quite convinced it will be amongst his greatest pieces, but we'll see. What we already know is that it offers a very enjoyable evening's dance.

[Coated]

I liked the fish people. Please bear in mind that my current TV diet consists of RuPaul's Drag Races.

 

That said, I neither hated nor loved the Tempest. As it is now, I probably wouldn't clamour to see it again.

 

I spent the first viewing enjoying the dancing, the second ruminating on why I don't get emotionally involved and skipped the third one to avoid getting too persnickety about elements of the staging. There was enough there to make me think that the Tempest can be done as a ballet, but not enough to make me care about the characters.

 

My lay person's recipe for a new, improved Tempest consist of

 

A) Rethink the set. There is no sense of location. What is a clever ship for the first 10-15 minutes becomes a hindrance for the rest of the performance. Overhearing a discussion in the intermission amongst a group of people who weren't familiar with the play seemed to confirm my opinion. Their assumption was that it all takes place underwater on a sunken ship.

 

B ) Pick a Tempest. Is it about the betrayal, revenge and eventual forgiveness from Prospero? Or a magic romp? About power struggles and (non)human relationships? Once you've picked your Tempest, defining the characters accordingly and making them interact might work better. The only characters that seemed to come truly alive were Stephano and Trinculo as light comic relief.

 

C) Set the scene. Steal from Wheeldon if necessary - not the Garland dance though, or the second act of Winters Tale, just the clever backstory provision and scene setting at the beginning of his Winter's Tale (adapt for Tempest). Skip the merry sailor's jig on a sinking ship and replace it with the passengers interacting before the storm, a meal, a stroll on deck, anything that identifies them as a King, his son, 2 nobles and 2 servants. Done. Do the same for the island inhabitants, a simple scene with all 4 of them interacting, Prospero making Ariel perform some simple magic, Ariel tormenting Caliban for a bit of fun, Caliban ogling Miranda furtively, Miranda getting Caliban to peel the potatoes...

And if you're already stealing, nick some of Rupert Goold's ideas from his RSC Tempest - like impressive but simple storm scenes without strobe lighting on steroids.

When using magic, spend a couple of minutes on unleashing the magic - this is not the time to be subtle unless you want an audience to think that the underwater shipwreck has been invaded by random merry farmers.

 

D) Remember that Ariel is not Tinkerbell, regardless of the chosen Tempest interpretation.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Coated