The Tempest
Mar. 19th, 2012 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impulsereaderRecently we saw this adaptation of The Tempest. It was interesting, and we were really sorry that we gave up our first row seats – due to a mix-up with another audience member and his wheelchair - because we really would have liked to have gotten a closer look at the puppetry since that was what made the show, really.
In this world Prospero has enslaved Ariel and Caliban to help him tell his story, and he has kept them at it for what the production suggests is a very long time, trying to get it right. At the beginning Ariel reminds Prospero that he has been promised his freedom, and he’d like to cash in that chit now. Once more with feeling, Ariel.
Now we are treated to a couple of gifted actors who take on multiple parts, aided by a set of intricate puppets. Ariel acts the part of Miranda and Caliban that of Ferdinand, each actor using one hand to manipulate a puppet head and the other a puppet arm. Ariel/Miranda is clearly giving the performance of her life in an effort to bring about the promised release. Caliban is just as clearly sulking that he is not being offered the same deal, and he eventually tries to get Ariel to help him kill Prospero – Propspero’s ‘magic wand’ in this production takes the form of an axe. The wedding of the two is bizarrely beautiful – considering the fact that it is being acted by two men under duress through puppetry – with floral wreaths now gracing the puppets.
The larger cast is represented by puppet heads without the added arm/hand that Miranda and Ferdinand have been granted – and use effectively to evoke the lovers reaching out and making contact. The heads are introduced as Ariel and Caliban pull them from a drawer of sand, setting visions of men washed up on a beach coughing out sea water dancing through my mind.
One of the high points is Ariel, a puppet head on either hand – each of which has a happy face and a sad face which the actor can switch between with a practiced jerk of his hand – doing a one-man comedy routine basically for his own amusement, Prospero having drifted off into a drunken sleep. Caliban gets a good bit acting – Caliban – with a puppet head which is the only piece that is actually worn – he manipulates the puppet mouth with his jaw movement, the puppet face located on the top of his head.
At a running time just over an hour, we don’t get the whole play, and that’s not really what this production is about, anyway. We’ve seen a couple different productions of The Tempest – Patrick Stewart in London! Yea! – and this proved an interesting study on the piece.
In this world Prospero has enslaved Ariel and Caliban to help him tell his story, and he has kept them at it for what the production suggests is a very long time, trying to get it right. At the beginning Ariel reminds Prospero that he has been promised his freedom, and he’d like to cash in that chit now. Once more with feeling, Ariel.
Now we are treated to a couple of gifted actors who take on multiple parts, aided by a set of intricate puppets. Ariel acts the part of Miranda and Caliban that of Ferdinand, each actor using one hand to manipulate a puppet head and the other a puppet arm. Ariel/Miranda is clearly giving the performance of her life in an effort to bring about the promised release. Caliban is just as clearly sulking that he is not being offered the same deal, and he eventually tries to get Ariel to help him kill Prospero – Propspero’s ‘magic wand’ in this production takes the form of an axe. The wedding of the two is bizarrely beautiful – considering the fact that it is being acted by two men under duress through puppetry – with floral wreaths now gracing the puppets.
The larger cast is represented by puppet heads without the added arm/hand that Miranda and Ferdinand have been granted – and use effectively to evoke the lovers reaching out and making contact. The heads are introduced as Ariel and Caliban pull them from a drawer of sand, setting visions of men washed up on a beach coughing out sea water dancing through my mind.
One of the high points is Ariel, a puppet head on either hand – each of which has a happy face and a sad face which the actor can switch between with a practiced jerk of his hand – doing a one-man comedy routine basically for his own amusement, Prospero having drifted off into a drunken sleep. Caliban gets a good bit acting – Caliban – with a puppet head which is the only piece that is actually worn – he manipulates the puppet mouth with his jaw movement, the puppet face located on the top of his head.
At a running time just over an hour, we don’t get the whole play, and that’s not really what this production is about, anyway. We’ve seen a couple different productions of The Tempest – Patrick Stewart in London! Yea! – and this proved an interesting study on the piece.