This Tempest fizzes despite taking sexual liberties with the characters
The Tempest Royal and Derngate Northampton
What brave new world is this? Prospero is Prospera, Sebastian is Simona and Gonzalo is Greta in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new adaptation for this National Youth Theatre co-production. Nothing so odd there – it’s hard to find a Shakespeare production at the moment that doesn’t mess with gender – but Lenkiewicz goes further. Prospera is now Miranda’s sister and Ferdinand is Alonso’s brother instead of his son. And there is not one Ariel but six.
I’m not convinced Lenkiewicz’s tinkering with the play’s dynastic and gender relationships yields much fruit in Caroline Steinbeis’s otherwise clear, pacy production. Yet in the end it doesn’t matter a great deal, for this is a
Tempest that fizzes with fresh, strongly visual ideas, with each scene boldly, beautifully composed. The shipwreck takes place outside Miranda’s bedroom window where the faces of desperate, drowning sailors press up against the glass. The fortress-like interior in which most of the action takes place constantly changes character: now a chamber with numerous doors leading off; now an institutional corridor in which Prospera and Miranda’s bedroom doors conceal – in the violent feast scene – fridges full of food.
But it’s the Ariels who best capture the disconcerting music of transformation and dream. They emerge one by one from under Prospera’s camp-bed. They change appearance and form: beguiling Ferdinand with a trancey dance sequence in silver suits; popping up at random sporting yellow boiler suits and gas masks; pecking at Alonso’s eyes and taunting Simona with a crown while bearing the shape of savage crows.
Steinbeis coaxes several striking performances from her 18- to 25year-old cast. I loved Jay Mailer’s Ferdinand, a frisky, cheeky chap who sprays himself with aftershave after exerting himself pushing a water butt and who looks terrified at Miranda’s swift proposal of marriage. Joe Law mines some terrific comedy as a knock-kneed Trinculo. Edi Cardoso’s lusty Anton and Sophie-Rose Darby’s Simona indulge in a quick snog before attempting to kill Alonso. The new key sibling relationship between Miranda and Prospera is, however, poorly explored. Sophie Walter is an ineffectual, unexciting Prospera and might have been better as Miranda, although Beth Markey injects that role with sparky sweetness. .