March 10th, 2007
Last Thursday’s evening performance was particularly boisterous, as it coincided with an afternoon 6th form conference also held at the Novello Theatre. It covered the history of the play and featured a mock-rehearsal between cast members Emma Jay Thomas and Edmund Kingsley. At the end there was a short interview with Patrick Stewart–who was greeted with rapturous applause–using questions that had been sent in earlier by the students.
To one question he answers wryly that ‘nothing else of any importance happens in the play at all’ apart from the change in Prospero, his leading role and a part he has played four times in separate productions. Altogether he has featured in the Tempest 15 times, dating back to when he played Prospero at 15 years old. He recalls, with faint embarrassment, having to wear a ’stuck on beard’ and a ‘long velvet gown’, but is most keen to convey that the thing he loved most was just ’saying words out loud’–something for which he has since become renowned for doing.
Many of the questions seemed to revolve around the fundamentally good or bad qualities of the characters, something which he responds to rather enigmatically with ‘young people’ see ‘absolutes’–’extremes’–when you get older life ‘is much more complicated, more interesting’. Now into his 60s he conveys the air of being a man who is very sure of his craft, indeed he says that he is enjoying “acting more than at any time” in his career. Though most of his fame is attributed to his roles as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and more recently as Xavier in the X-Men films, it is clear his mind rests with his career on-stage: at one point he forgot whether X-Men III was ‘Last Stand’ or ‘Final Stand’, which he shrugged off to a low murmuring laugh from his audience.
He talks about the production and its novel take on the island the characters are stranded on.
Adrian: Though this Island seeme to be desert.
The conventional interpretation of ‘desert’ is that of a romantic desert island, which considering you can “strand” yourself somewhere exotic with a few pounds on EasyJet, isn’t all that forbidding. The polar ice caps remain the last land frontiers on Earth and setting the play in the Arctic presents a contemporary audience with the same relative sense of being truly stranded. Stewart describes the Arctic as somewhere ‘magic in the 21st century’ and reveals his uncommon penchant for collecting Inuit sculpture; expertise he used when they decided on Prospero’s whalebone staff.
The play opens with a shipping forecast and an elaborate projection of a swelling sea. This projection was used again during the scene changes and slowly turned from bubbles swirling underwater to what I thought as snow swirling in the air. This attention to detail was apparent in many parts of the performance, from the small conciliatory shrug by Adrian (Chris Jarman) after firing a flare to no avail, to the positioning of a small boat to signify that distance was traveled between scenes. Though those parts were well executed, I was however expecting more of these touches to convey the supposedly freezing ambience; it was implausible when Stewart ‘theatrically’ removed his cloak, exposing his bare torso, as was seeing all the characters standing on stage like they were–well–standing on stage, not in some frigid wind.
Miranda’s (Mariah Gale) odd mannerisms were explained during the conference: in production they watched videos of children with autism, and other social difficulties to create the socially stunted character, who practically only has her father’s company on the island. She used to interact with Caliban (John Light), but when he tried to rape her, Prospero enslaved him and has generally mistreated him ever since: in this production he spits in his meal that looks like raw mincemeat.
Ariel (Julian Bleach) was a frozen spectre of a spirit, with his white hair shocked back and heavy white face and black eye makeup. In some parts of the dialogue he broke into haunting song, which sounded like Leonard Cohen punctuated with eerie falsetto. He steals the show in the highly imaginative interpretation of Shakespeare’s odd stage direction:
Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet; and dance about it with gentle actions of salutations…
A dead cow (that is a female walrus) is wheeled on, and just as the men start feasting, Ariel rips through the skin and guts and springs out from inside, covered in blood wearing the animal’s ribs, with sound effects booming and lights flashing. It was really the substance of nightmares.
The treatment of Ariel is by far the most interesting in the play; he was so distinctive that he even overshadowed Prospero, dare I say it. Though unfortunately it really undermined the dynamic of the original Shakespeare: the relationship between Ariel and Prospero was no longer believable as Ariel was awarded such high status. Prospero calls him ‘delicate’ but that word could not be further from my mind when describing him.
Individual moments of the performance were very entertaining. The moment when Stephano (Joseph Alessi) found the ‘monster’ and tried to pour some of the wine in its ‘other mouth’ brought the house down–I’ll leave you to guess where he put the bottle. Craig Gazey gave Trinculo the Northern treatment and skated across the stage wearing frying pans on his feet. At times I was incredulous as to how much was the original Shakespeare, but I looked up my doubts in the script and it’s all there, which is all credit to him.
Setting the play in the Arctic created problems, but I felt it paid off. However at some times I felt that director Rupert Goold over-baked the stylistic points, notably the over-long Goddess scene and the odd effect the actors made with their mouths. When Stephano was called to use the sound against Caliban, the actor added with a little nod to the audience “see I can do it too”. Comprised of the unreserved young, the audience had no qualms at laughing at this supposed seriousness. However the thunderous applause at the end was a testament to the Tempest’s overall success, despite the flaws.
March 18th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
[…] Ariel, as played by Julian Bleach , was a disturbing spectre, not dissimilar in appearance to Edward Scissorhands or Pinhead from the Hellraiser films. His powder white face, shock of hair, and long, dark flowing robes, make him an eerie if not terrifying presence on stage. He first appears, shockingly, out of a metal barrel, spitting and raging at Prospero, whipping against the edges of the barrel, emoting not only through his words but through the tipping forward and backwards of his head. This horrific vision of Ariel was a great surprise, and a refreshing take on the otherworldly nature of this character. I agree with Alex over at Heuristic Blog , who writes that “The treatment of Ariel is by far the most interesting in the play; he was so distinctive that he even overshadowed Prospero, dare I say it. Though unfortunately it really undermined the dynamic of the original Shakespeare: the relationship between Ariel and Prospero was no longer believable as Ariel was awarded such high status. Prospero calls him ‘delicate’ but that word could not be further from my mind when describing him.” John Light played Caliban, and I was impressed by one telling detail: Light spends most of the play squatting and on his knees, thus embodying his subjugated state. […]
March 20th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
[…] Heuristic Blog « The Tempest, Novello Theatre […]