05:36:48 am 
A Heavy Storm
Categories: UncategorizedIn director Brian Kulick's staging of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which opened last night at Classic Stage Company, a huge painted canvas of a lush, almost Rococo, cloud-filled sky supported by ropes hangs above the stage. This central element of Jian Jung's stark scenic design rises and falls and teeters above the action (thanks to four distractingly visible operators) of the production.
It's a handsome piece of scenery and one that can aptly mirror the oppressive bitterness that lowers upon Prospero (Mandy Patinkin), the former Duke of Milan who has spent 12 years on a desert island after being ousted by his brother Antonio (Karl Kenzler). At the same time, though, the piece weighs heavily upon the production, ironically diminishing the play's airier elements, such as the romance that develops between Miranda (Elisabeth Waterston), Prospero's daughter, and Ferdinand (Craig Wright), son to the King of Naples (Michael Potts), who along with Antonio and his father is shipwrecked on the island following a storm conjured by Prospero.
The magic that Prospero uses to conjure the storm comes not only from the research and experimentation he conducted prior to his ouster, but also from what he's learned while on the island, where's he's enslaved two of its magical residents, the kindly sprite Ariel (Angel Desai) and the barbaric Caliban (Nyambi Nyambi). While Ariel works to assist Prospero in his designs against his brother and followers, Caliban works with more dissolute members of the court – Trinculo (Tony Torn) and Stefano (Steven Rattazzi) – to oust his master.
The multilayered tales of "Tempest" are told with marvelous lucidity in Kulick's production, and there are a host of fine performances, particularly from Patinkin who delivers a passionate, but impressively restrained, interpretation of the wronged and wronging Prospero. Both Waterston and Wright charm as the young couple whose attraction to one another is instantaneous. Yet these two, like Torn and Rattazzi, who work tirelessly to bring the comedic aspects of the play to life, feel as if they are curiously stifled in the production. Though the lovers' deep emotions are evident and the others' clowning apparent, these emotions fail to reach into the hearts of theatergoers.
There are moments when this production does manage to somehow soar above the both literal and metaphorical barrier of the canvas: whenever Christian Frederickson's delicate original score – often sung beautifully by Desai – is performed and also during the play's final moments when Patinkin's Prospero relinquishes his bitterness and enmity. It's difficult to not be moved in these sequences, but unfortunately, like the island on which its set, much of this "Tempest" feels barren, or at least, somehow oppressed.
---- Andy Propst
The Tempest continues through October 12 at Classic Stage Company (156 East 13th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Additional performances are Sunday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Oct 12 at 7:30pm. Tickers are $70-75 and can be purchased by calling 866-811-4111 or 212-352-3101. Further information, and ticketing, is available online at: www.classicstge.org
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