"Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not." -- Caliban, Act III, Scene ii The Tempest.
Director Rick Dildine's interpretation of Shakespeare's late-career The Tempest is playing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for an all-too-short run. Editing the play to a compact 110-minute intermissionless production, setting it in the late 18th Century on Christopher and Justin Swader's grand hulk of a skeletal wrecked ship, and adding a folksy musical score to span the centuries and signal its relevance to modern audiences, it details a story of revenge and forgiveness, of love and family, of control and slavery, of music and of magic.
Much of the magic on-stage comes in the person of Greta Lambert in the principal role of Prospero: a sorcerer/magician seeking revenge on the perpetrators of her exile some twelve years ago, when she and her then infant daughter Miranda [Sigrid Wise] were ousted by her brother Antonio [Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper] from the Dukedom of Milan. With the assistance of Gonzalo [Greg Thornton], they escaped to a remote island, where her study of magic has given her power and authority over a savage Caliban [Chauncy Thomas] and an airy spirit Ariel [Thani Brant], both of whom want their freedom.
Ms. Lambert's ASF career spans the last 38 years, during which she has impressed and delighted audiences in portraying countless Shakespearean heroines, and a host of classical and contemporary protagonists, putting her indelible mark on each with skillfully measured physical and vocal exactness that embraces each character's humanity and affords audiences the ability to connect with them.
Here, she is a protective and compassionate mother, a determined taskmaster, a master of revenge and restraint, a skilled magician, and one who learns that love and forgiveness are the very things that can set one free.
When Prospero shipwrecks her antagonists by conjuring a storm at the start of the play, dispersing them in separate groups around the island, she gets her revenge in motion. But her purpose is more than that: she wants Miranda to meet and fall in love with Ferdinand [Billy Finn], the son of Alonzo [Michael A. Sheppard] the King of Naples, and to ultimately unite Naples with Milan. Mr. Finn and Ms. Wise are thoroughly credible in their depiction of "love at first sight". And Ariel is empowered to do her bidding to manipulate her plans and by the end, bring them all together to resolve the various conflicts.
As a counterpoint to Prospero, et al., Shakespeare introduces the King's jester Trinculo [Alex Brightwell] and drunken butler Stephano [Chris Mixon] -- the two of them are a rambunctious comical double-act -- whose meeting with Caliban show how both the aristocrats and the lower classes devise murder plots to have things for themselves. The King's brother Sebastian [Ben Cherry], along with Adrian [Danny Adams] and Francisco [Pete Winfrey] plot to overthrow him, and Caliban conscripts Trinculo and Stephano to overthrow Prospero.
It is a distinct pleasure to see and hear three of ASF's current and former actors reunite on the stage. While the assorted skills and craft of the entire acting company are on display throughout, and the musical elements are engaging and skillfully connected to Shakespeare's intentions, Ms. Lambert, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Mixon give a master class in speaking Shakespeare's verse clearly and with character driven purpose.
Ms. Lambert is in charge from the first moment to the last, tracking Prospero's journey from revenge to forgiveness, and seeking her own freedom from revenge in promising to give up magic. As she breaks her magic staff and sets Ariel free, she begs the audience's indulgence/applause to set her free...and we comply with her request with a well-deserved ovation both for Prospero and for the ever gracious and resilient Greta Lambert.
