VINES OF VIRTUE: Tempestuous explorations. |
The near-uninhabited spirit island of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, at the Theater at Monmouth, is evoked with a set swathed in white. Pale sheets hang in folds alongside nautical ropes as the backdrop, are twisted about a fallen mast, and are blanketed over steps and alcoves. This is a very susceptible white. Because it both entwines the ship’s rigging and stretches out horizon-like, it seems to be a substance at once of humans and of the elements. Thanks to fine shifts in lighting — pale pinks, deep-sea blues — we see, in the sheets, stirrings now of sails, now of sky, now of sea. And in the white’s expectant blankness, there’s ample room for both suggestion and projection: what do the play’s assorted humans see in the island? A paradise? A wilderness? Spirits and devils? Something to conquer and claim? Monmouth’s white-wrapped stage elegantly reveals the island as both a medium for illusion and a tabula rasa by which to measure the natures of the humans who find themselves marooned there, in director Jeri Pitcher’s rich and loving production.This island straddling the natural and the supernatural is under the command of Prospero (Bill Van Horn). Usurped by his brother from his rule over the people of Milan, he has taken up books, a cloak, and a staff with which to rule the spirits here. His particular servants are the airy sprite Ariel (the effervescent Victoria Caciopoli) and the crude, earthy creature Caliban (Adam Peña). His only human company is his daughter, Miranda (an endearing Tracie Merrill), who knows no man but her father. A storm strands an entourage that includes Prospero’s brother Antonio (Mark S. Cartier) along with the Queen (Janis Stevens), her son Ferdinand (Jacob Troy), and several other nobles and drunkards. Suddenly landed with human creatures, the island of spirits is thus rife for an exploration of exactly what is “human.”
As the old ruler playing at magic in this realm, there’s no actor around better suited for the role than Van Horn. His Prospero conveys both a magnificent scope of human experience — we see him enraged at treachery, giddy at young love, intoxicated with his power, and humbled by human affections — and a weighty self-awareness. These play strikingly against the bright blitheness of Caciopoli’s nimble Ariel. Dressed in iridescent forest colors, her lightness of foot and speech nevertheless pull her toward the air, as if she’s just barely tethered to the earth. Her foil, the half-breed Caliban, is pale and hissing in the person of Peña. He snarls his words where Ariel makes hers into unearthly music accompanied by airy, playful percussion that seems to come from everywhere at once. Other spirits of the isle seem at once everywhere and nowhere when they emerge, made to seem startlingly transparent by clever white body suits and gauzed masks.
Related:
The islander, Gilded stage, Staging send-ups, More 
- The islander
It’s to the credit of the cast of The Tempest that many of the actors are so engaging that I didn’t even notice the city noises until the momentary silence of a scene change.
- Gilded stage
In the Theater at Monmouth's Twelfth Night , the Bard's gender-bending foibles play out in a proscenium within a proscenium — or, more strictly speaking, a sound stage within a proscenium:
- Staging send-ups
I’m happy to report that a number of other summer productions will be sending up various cultural phenomena.
- A Danish punk
The sad mad Danish prince is probably the most oft-quoted tragic hero in the English language, but he's a lot more than that. He is also, as I was reminded recently by a theater companion encountering him for the first time, pretty exasperating to be around, as well as "kind of a punk."
- The best on the boards
There have been a few muggings on the rialto this year.
- Bard for life
Stewart's decision to return to the stage has all but halted his film career. "I haven't talked to my agent for months,” he says. “We have nothing to say to one another."
- Power mad
Trinity Repertory Company is staging a version of Richard III that comes at us like a Sherman tank.
- More Bard, please
The sultry season is soon upon us, and as always, it will bring area theater-goers such dependable balms as Shakespeare (both in and out of the park), classic musicals, and giddy misbehavior of various sorts. Between that manna and a few original productions, written and performed by local artists, we've got a rich season line-up.
- Lost + in love
Romeo and Juliet , staged by the Players’ Ring in Portsmouth, NH, disdains gimmicks and revels in Shakespeare’s language and the vicissitudes of the human voice.
- Suspicion
With John Douglas Thompson’s Moor, more is evidently more.
- Play by play: May 29, 2009
Boston's theater schedule
- Less
Topics:
Theater
, William Shakespeare, Mike Anthony, Dustin Tucker, More
, William Shakespeare, Mike Anthony, Dustin Tucker, Janis Stevens, Mark Cartier, Lindsay Torrey, Jacob Troy, Tracie Merrill, Jeri Pitcher, Bill Van Horn, Less
