The RSC’s big Christmas show this year is The Tempest directed by Gregory Doran in association with Intel and The Imaginarium Studios. Starting from the premise that Shakespeare used the cutting edge of Jacobean technology for his masque in The Tempest, this production attempts to use the cutting edge of twenty-first century technology for the production. There is an avatar of Ariel; there are all kinds of projections; the masque is unusually played in full and is full of ostentatious spectacle. I’m sure that members of the audience interested in digital whatsits are going to be very impressed.
Steven Brinson-Lewis’s set design is also spectacular combining with projections of sea, forest and the mysteries of the island. The broken hull of a ship becomes the location of Prospero’s cell and there are some wonderful forest and landscape projections onto the backdrop. The use of Hockney’s paintings delighted me and I wondered whether it was a tribute to the way Hockney had experimented with the uses of new technology in his art.
For me the star of the show was the stage floor with wonderful red cut-out effects and constant visual changes. I’m very glad that we had decided to sit upstairs rather than in the stalls.
All the effects for me got in the way of the play and seemed unbelievably un-Doranlike. There was so much stuff going on – visual and aural – that one of Shakespeare’s most magnificent speeches, Ariel’s ‘You are three men of destiny’ speech was only partly intelligible. And spectacle dominated.
Not throughout, though. I really enjoyed Simon Russell Beale’s understated Prospero. There were almost none of Beale’s characteristic physical and vocal tricks. It was still and poised, although not to everyone’s taste. Our friends were distinctly underwhelmed by his performance and did not see much of a connection between him and Miranda. There was certainly a connection between Ferdinand (a very cute Daniel Easton) and Miranda (Jenny Rainsford). I enjoyed watching Mark Quartley’s Ariel, although some of his movements were clearly for digital rather than character reasons.
The most enjoyable acting came from the wonderfully entertaining Tony Jayawardena as Stephano (what a pleasure to see him back on the RSC stage), Simon Trinder as Trinculo and Joe Dixon as Caliban.
In the end I wasn’t sure what it all was. Not really a play. Not focussed sufficiently on motivation and character development to be a drama. Maybe a spectacle. Maybe an experiment. Maybe just spending money and showing off.
I think you should come and see it because it is apparently breaking new theatrical ground and is probably the first of what becomes a tradition where the different elements are better integrated and more purposefully used to serve the play itself.