Watching The Tempest

Blog entry by Liz Georgoff

Last Wednesday was probably the coolest Wednesday I have ever had. I woke up, went to class, ate some lunch and then did a little reading…You know all that normal daily grind stuff. BUT THEN, I put all that and aside and headed over to the Power Center to help usher at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s dress rehearsal of The Tempest. After showing various high school groups to their seats I found myself a seat and within minutes, I was completely blown away.

The Tempest opens up with a violent shipwreck scene. Before the show began it was beyond me as to how they were possibly going to show it such a scene on stage. I guess I was forgetting who I was going to see, because the Royal Shakespeare Company is no average theatrical group. They went above and beyond, with spectacular lights, sounds effects and settings. Basically the gist of the setup included a large screen that took up the entirety of the stage with an image of a transistor radio on it. The round speaker of the radio doubly functioned as a pothole-esque window in which the actors stood, or should I say, swayed around on a set that looked like the deck of a ship. All the while, there was dramatic music and frantic lighting. On top of all that, there was even a translucent kind of video imagery being projected over the entirety of the stage on the screen of crashing, violent waves.

This layer upon layer of visual stimuli created quite a spectacle! I can’t imagine a way that a theater company could capture so dramatically and effectually the mood and events of an actual shipwreck on small stage in the Power Center. The rest of the show was up to par with the grand beginning, what with Patrick Stewart strutting around on stage with his shirt off, excellent acting, creative costumes and a unique set placing the story in the artic. The character of Miranda got on my nerves a little, as she came off as very childish and not at all ready to get married as she does at the end of the play, but perhaps I don’t understand her character as well as the actress.

During intermission I realized I was sitting next to the Assistant Director Steve Marmion. We started talking and I was able to help him out by giving him my impressions of the show. He was incredibly friendly and when he told me he had directed The Tempest five other times, I was surprised because he seemed so young. Getting to speak to one of the creative masterminds of the show made my experience even more exciting.

Overall, this was by far the best live Shakespeare I had ever seen. I understand now why people stood in line for hours in the cold rain to get tickets earlier this year to see the RSC. I have no doubt that Shakespeare would be proud.