| Darin Kerr plays Prospero with A.M. Duffee as Miranda in the Lionface Productions’ “The Tempest.” (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune) |
A steady rain drove "The Tempest" inside last night.
Still the darker confines inside Needle Hall in City Park couldn’t dim the luster of Lionface
Productions’ staging of Shakespeare’s tale of magic.
The play opens at Needle Hall, either inside or out depending on the weather, tonight at 6 p.m. and
continues with shows Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Darin Kerr, who never turns in less than a stellar performance, adds his own brand of magic as the
sorcerer Prospero, a duke betrayed by his sister. (As is usual for local Shakespeare in the park
productions, actresses take on male roles, making up for those original productions where boys played
all the female characters.)
Kerr is not intimidated by the richness of the language. His delivery is full of nuance and emotional
shading. This allows him to give full expression to his character’s depths. When he speaks the play’s
iconic lines – "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a
sleep" – he makes us hear them anew.
A man of books – his sister Antonia (D. Bonanno) was able to plot against him because he ceded so much
authority to her so he could study – he also bullies and tortures with pinches and cramps his servant
Caliban (Joel Paine), the monster who had run of the island before Prospero and his daughter Miranda
(A.M. Duffee) were shipwrecked there.
Yes they taught him language, bestowing on him a glimmer of what it means to be human, and yet burdening
him with all the menial tasks needed so they can live comfortably.
Yes Caliban is a brute and a threat to Miranda whom he lusts after, and Paine’s lumbering, menacing gait
makes that clear. One gets the best glimpse of the island’s bounty through Caliban’s detailing of it to
the comic duo Sebastian (Corey Dinardo) and Trinculo (Kat Moran).
Miranda brings the best out of her father. Duffee makes Miranda, bright both in intellect and demeanor,
untainted by her father’s simmering sense of grievance toward those who betrayed him.
The play, directed by Ryan Halfhill, opens with a burst of chaos, on the deck of a ship caught up in a
sudden storm. Recorded music, enhanced by flutist Kat Schwarz, pounds, almost drowning out the lines
(though that likely would not be an issue outside).
The ship is carrying Antonia, Alonsa (Sarah Maxwell), the ruler who conspired with her, Alonsa’s equally
perfidious brother Sebastian (Corey Dinardo) and Alonsa’s handsome son Ferdinand (Jeff Sneed) and sundry
courtiers.
All are cast ashore, though in separate groups. The storm was the work of Ariel (Katie Grilliot) the
mischievous sprite who does Prospero’s bidding in hopes he will free her.
As the play progresses Prospero draws the characters toward him, in separate threads of plot.
Ferdinand arrives first, and he and Miranda are smitten with each other. He is she notes only the third
man she’s ever laid eyes on and the first man she has sighed for. Though pleased with the match,
Prospero feigns rage at Ferdinand. He believes that putting obstacles in the lovers way will make their
eventual coming together all the sweeter.
The royal party wanders lost and bickering and conniving, unaware of the force drawing them closer to
their reckoning. Bonanno exploits gender switch in her role, bringing some of the seductiveness she
showed as a witch in last season’s "Macbeth" to her plotting with Sebastian to kill Alonsa.
Scott Stechschulte’s Gonzalo stands out, both because his character is a voice of morality among the
cynical courtiers, and because Stechschulte brings his character to life as a man brimming with
enthusiasm for life and philosophy. The words spill from him in joyous, windy bursts.
The third party is the comic pair Trinculo and Sebastian. Dinardo and Moran make the most of the choice
patter Shakespeare provides, adding the slapstick elements necessary to entertain the groundlings – in
this case a solitary, somewhat soggy reviewer – as they plot with Caliban to kill Prospero and reign
over the island. Paine’s Caliban is the brains of the plot.
I’m left to wonder what his fate will be once Miranda and Prospero leave.
Prospero sees his own future clearly, giving up sorcery, and returning to a life of contemplation
"where every third thought will be of the grave."
