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The Tempest

Little Angel Theatre, Inner London
From: Saturday, 9th April 2011
To: Sunday, 15 May 2011

Our Review:

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Synopsis

A storm is brewing and a ship is lost at sea. On an island full of noises, the magician Prospero prepares for a shipwreck which is not all that it seems. Everyone on the island is looking for something. Ferdinand is searching for his lost father, and King Alonso for his son. The spirit Ariel longs to be free. The monster Caliban wants his kingdom back. Stephano, the drunken butler, would like to be a king too. And for Miranda, Prospero's lonely daughter, this is the day she'll meet a Prince and discover who she really is. Can the terrible past be forgiven to make way for a brave new world for all?

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 18 April 2011

This collaboration on The Tempest marks the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company and also of the Little Angel puppet theatre in Islington, always a delightful venue to visit in its beautiful little square in Dagmar Passage off Upper Street.

Playing at just 75 minutes, with a hectically doubling cast of seven and two main puppets for Ariel and Caliban, Peter Glanville’s production, using a text he’s edited with Phil Porter, is more than a digest, but it is fairly skimpy.

And the puppets don’t take on the animated beauty of the equine structures in War Horse, let alone those in the two companies’ last collaboration on Venus and Adonis. Ariel is a boring little Pinnochio with a squeaky voice, Caliban a dull mixture of Shrek and rubber dinosaur, both visibly manipulated on the stage.

The human properties of neither are a factor in this production, which immediately cauterises half the play...

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