Reimagined play intriguing but confusing
Actors Theatre’s supple, challenging new production of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" streamlines the original, emphasizing some plot lines and nearly ignoring others.
Directed by David Harewood, the sometimesdiscordant production at Schiller Park has a dramatic physicality that comes occasionally at the expense of the play’s language and essential structure.
Among the many changes to the play, one that works well is the switch in gender for many of the characters — so that the magician who rules the island on which the story takes place is Prospera, not Prospero.
Susan Wismar tackles the role with relish, making the sometimes-remote character a weary, down-to-earth one. The gender change adds an interesting twist to the relationship of parent to daughter, as Prospera consents to the match between her eager, innocent daughter (Hannah Roth) to the besotted Ferdinand (Tom Murdock).
Another effective change involves the splitting of the role of Ariel into three parts, with three very different actresses (Christina Yoho, Dakota Thorn and Shanelle Marie) onstage at the same time. The device, along with dramatic light changes and a spooky sound design, helps create the impression that the island itself is alive and constantly controlling the actions of the oblivious humans who end up there.
The struggle for power and control forms the center of this version of the play.
Prospera, with the help of the sometimes-reluctant spirits, wields zombifying power on the other characters, to the point that they sometimes seem like interchangeable figures in a game she’s playing with herself.
At times, it seems as if Harewood has too many ideas to fit into one coherent production. It makes a certain sense that the exploited spirits of the island speak in West Indian accents; it’s far less clear why the show’s clowns (Tony Ludovico and Heather Gorby) are speaking in Appalachian ones.
In theory, Harewood’s ending for the play makes a sociopolitical point; in practice, it’s dramatically unsatisfying.
This isn’t necessarily a production that will work well for newcomers to "The Tempest." Potentially confusing relationships among the many characters often remain obscure, and strong accents sometimes make it difficult to understand the dialogue, particularly in the case of Caliban (Christopher “Casanova” Jones) and the Ariels, who speak as a chorus.
Those already familiar with the play, however, should be intrigued by the questions this interpretation raises and the slant it puts on a play that could be criticized for its implicit colonialism.