James Karas
There is a poetic justice and chronological beauty about the Stratford
Festival’s production of The Tempest. Its place in history
will remain also as the opening night that was cancelled because of a terrorist
threat. Indeed it was and the actual opening happened on June 10 instead of the
original May 28. But I am not referring to that. I am talking about Martha
Henry, actor, director extraordinary. She played Miranda in 1962, her first
season at Stratford. This year, fifty six years later, she plays Prospero and
gives a masterful and indeed historic performance.
Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino directs the production and he seems to have spared no effort to make it one of
the finest in recent memory. He has selected the finest cast and directs with
such attention to detail and imaginative outpouring as to make your attention
riveted to every aspect of the performance.
From left: Sébastien Heins as Ferdinand, Martha Henry as
Prospero and Mamie Zwettler as Miranda.
Photography by David
Hou.
Martha Henry. Age has taken its toll on Ms Henry. She appears frail,
slightly crouched and one had fears about what type of Prospero she will make.
No one need be concerned about her. Her voice is steady and strong, her
enunciation clear and her ability to deliver iambic pentameters simply
impeccable. This Prospero has aged and gained wisdom and knows when it is time
to quit, to break his staff. He has every cause to seek revenge but decides
that “the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance” and forgives his
enemies.
The Tempest is a complex play with many layers but one of its main
aspects is the growth towards forgiveness and grace. By the end of the
performance I felt that a woman playing Prospero is preferable to a man in the
role. Henry’s physical frailty and strength of character make a powerful
combination for the character of Prospero and for some of the themes of the
play. The deposed Prospero who seeks refuge on an island becomes an occupier
and deposer herself until the end when all changes.
The island may have four inhabitants, Prospero, Miranda (Mamie
Zwettler), Ariel (Andre Morin) and Caliban (Michael Blake) but it has a
boatload of Spirits, Monsters, Nymphs, Reapers, Dogs and a Harpy. Not to
mention Iris (Chick Reid), Ceres (Alexis Gordon) and Juno (Lucy Peacock.)
Cimolino gives full attention and play to all of them in a production that, as
I said, nothing is underdone or left out.
Stephen Ouimette as the jester Trinculo and Tom McCamus as the drunk
butler Stephano are hilarious and as is usual with good actors steal the show
when they are on stage.
Mamie Zwettler as Miranda and Sebastian Heins as Ferdinand are the pure
and innocent lovers and we enjoy watching them fall in love and provide for a
happy post-Tempest future.
The baddies are Graham Abby as the
usurper Antonio who convinces Sebastian (Andre Sills), the equally bad brother of
King Alonso, to murder the king. David
Collins plays the distraught Alonso, the father of Ferdinand. But there is
virtue among evil and it is represented by Gonzalo in a fine performance as
usual by Rod Beattie.
There is no effort to make the spirit of the air,
Ariel, fly around the theatre but Andre
Morin gives us a spirited performance. Michael’s Blake’s Caliban is both nasty
and hilarious, especially in his scenes with Stephano and Trinculo.
Cimolino opens the production with Prospero sitting atop of her cell
with the scene dominated by the leafless trunk of a tree. She raises her staff
and brings about the storm that will wreck the ship and bring the good and bad
Italians to the island for the drama to
commence. There is no doubt about who controls everything on her island.
The staging, the set designed by Bretta Garecke, the lighting, designed
by Michael Walton, the sound design by Thomas Ryder Paine with Berthold
Carriere’s music emphasize and indeed celebrate the magical, other-worldly
atmosphere of the island.
There are many exquisitely acted and directed scenes. Near the end, when
Caliban is freed after being treated roughly,
perhaps because he tried to rape Miranda, as he walks by her she puts her hand
on his shoulder in a wonderful gesture of forgiveness.
At the end, a trap door opens, the lights are dimmed except in the hole
in the stage boards and Prospero throws her staff, her crown, her gown, her
books of magic and all she had on the island and she becomes free.
Most of us can only imagine Martha Henry as Miranda in 1962 but no one
who saw her will forget her Prospero or Cimolino’s Tempest of 2018.
__________
The Tempest by William Shakespeare opened on June 10 and
will run until October 26, 2018 at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca 1-800-567-1600
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