British actor shines brightest in `The Tempest'

It takes an actor of a certain stature to play the lead role in what some consider to be Shakespeare's greatest play.

The Tempest is a play that is filled with verbose rhetorical histrionics. Clocking in at about two hours and fifteen minutes, the play comprises three complex subplots that even a Shakespeare devotee could easily lose track of.

Academy Award winning-director Sam Mendes has made the right decision in casting British actor Stephen Dillane as the exiled Duke of Milan Prospero, for his second installment of the Bridge Project's The Tempest.

Dillane has a natural grace, measured vocalism and an imposing authority that strongly radiates throughout the play, which premiered last week at the Esplanade Theatre in the city-state of Singapore. It was a performance so stellar that it came close to eclipsing those of other actors cast by Mendes for the play.

From the moment he arrives on the scene from the darkened corner of the stage - and prowls coolly and causally around the small sand-filled circle on which most of the acting takes place - to the scene in which he throws his books into the water to relinquish his powers, there is not a single moment during the play in which his performance is not overbearing.

Dillane, who won a Tony Award in 2000 for his role in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, is the anchor of Sam Mendes version of The Tempest. Dillane is best suited to the role as the character that he plays, Prospero, is the anchor of the play. Prospero is a magician with the power to control all of the other characters in the play, and it is his actions that set in motion the play's intertwining plots.

The Tempest revolves around Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who after being usurped by his brother Antonio and Alonso, the King of Naples, dedicates all of his efforts to conjuring up a tempest that would sweep his usurpers to him. The story starts with Prospero and his daughter Miranda being put into a tiny boat and sent to a deserted island away from civilization. During his 12 years of exile, Prospero practices sorcery and is eventually able to set free two spirits, Ariel (dour Christian Camargo) and Caliban (an electric Ron Cephas Jones), whom he employs to help his plot against his usurpers.

Prospero's obsession is to create a tempest that would allow him to have his revenge on a humanity that has failed him. In this tale of revenge, Prospero takes advantage of the frailty of human nature by benefiting from the other characters' various vulnerabilities to manipulation, including by inducing hallucinations through intoxication.

The story is a dark and gloomy affair that only gets much-needed relief when Prospero agrees to arrange a marriage for his daughter, who has fallen in love with Ferdinand (a subdued Edward Bennet), the son of Alonso, who is Prospero's usurper.

However, this moment of relief turns out to be the play's weakest point, as it is a rather dull moment.

During this scene, short films depicting Miranda's childhood are projected onto a terracotta wall that frames the stage, but these serve no purpose and have nothing to do with the overall plot. Also, the post-wedding dance seems forced and the choreography heavy.

After this scene, Dillane once again comes to the rescue with his redeeming acting skills. The supposedly happy ending is denied by Prospero, who enters dressed in his full sorcerer's garb, and declares that the marriage is "too light winning" and would only serve to cheapen the ultimate prize of revenge - "making the prize light".

Redemption is indeed difficult to attain.

Shakespeare completed The Tempest in 1611, almost three centuries before the birth of Kipling, so we can forgive him for his portrayal of Caliban, the native inhabitant of the island, as an unrefined savage.

All of the other characters in the story refer to Caliban as "monster", and in fact the name Caliban itself is an anagram for the word cannibal. It is almost redundant to see an African American, a fine actor in the form of Ron Cephas Jones, playing the role. It does not take a post-colonial theorist to cry foul at the unsightly portrayal of the "Other".

In his take on The Tempest, Mendes makes no effort to conceal his meta-theatrical approach to the production. The play comments on itself, drawing attention to the literal circumstances of its own production.

In Mendes' production, the actors only come into character when they have entered a circle of the sand in the middle of the stage. When they are not in the circle, they are seated behind the circle and simply look on toward the action with empty gazes.

Although the props and musicians on the stage stand back from the circle, their presence is still a critical element of the production and they serve as accomplices to Prospero as he attempts to pull off his spells.

The self-reflecting nature of the performance becomes apparent during the end of the play when Dillane's Prospero declares "Our revels are now ended/ These our actors. we are all spirits, are melted into air. The great globe itself/Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve."

Here we see that Prospero could be Shakespeare's alter ego, who is unsure of his relationship with his work. With the use of the circle of sand and the scene when Prospero throws his books to sea, it is obvious that Shakespeare is rejecting that he retains a connection to his completed work or a responsibility for it. (Kafka and Camus did almost the same thing three centuries later).

Mendes gives his own interpretation of The Tempest, and what captivating theatre it is.

Source : The Jakarta Post