The Tempest
Written by William Shakespeare.
Directed by Kathi E. B. Ellis
Reviewed by Keith Waits
Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights
reserved.
Yet there is also a tradition of outdoor theatre in Kentucky
and outdoor Shakespeare in many places, so the first observation I would make
about The Tempest at the Josephine
Sculpture Park, located just outside of Frankfort, is that the difficulties
found in this particular location are no more and no greater than one would
find in, say, Kentucky Shakespeare in Louisville’s Central Park. Yes, HWY 127
runs close enough to the stage to be heard by the audience, but a
newly-installed sound system does a fair job of competing. And yes, the only
light is from the sun, which makes where you choose to sit somewhat crucial and
made the last few minutes of the production seem a bit of a race to deliver the
final lines while there was light enough to follow the action. But the shifting
angle of the light accentuates the natural environment and its fine
appropriation as a setting for one of Shakespeare’s most elemental stories.
I have always been fond of The Tempest, which, even though it often gets knocked by some
scholars as one of the Bard’s weakest plays, strikes me as a highly accessible
work. The combination of magic, revenge and comedy played fairly well in this
production, which manages to tell the story in a clean and forthright manner,
even if some of the deeper elements get pushed into the background. Some of
that is because the more obvious and entertaining aspects of the material play
better in an open-air theatre environment. Director Kathi E. B. Ellis seems to
understand this and stages the action with an eye towards engaging the audience
in a populist manner. The broad comedy went over very well with the family
audience, with the exchanges between Brian West’s excellent and authoritative
Stephano and Spencer Scruggs’s colorful Trinculo winning particular favor with
the younger audience members.
The more serious themes suffered somewhat, with Keith McGill’s
Caliban earning laughs but never exploring the tragedy and suffering that are
also present in this character. Clint Gill stumbled through his early scenes as
Prospero but found his footing as the evening progressed, first capturing the
authority, and then eventually some of the majesty and mystique of one of
Shakespeare’s most enigmatic leads. There was a sense of the actor still,
fascinatingly, discovering the character. The four noblemen who are the center
of the political intrigue were an uneven mix, with Steve Zimmerman an efficient
if uninspired Alonzo, King of Naples; and Joey Arena an engaging Sebastian, his
duplicitous and scheming brother. But DeAldon Watson missed, again, the darker,
deeper depths of Antonio’s evil; and Hy Stein gave us a Gonzalo that, despite
his borscht-belt color, was slow enough to drag the quartet’s scenes to a crawl
in some key moments.
More successful was the earnest yet delightful presentation
of Ariel by Clayton Marshall. Dominating his scenes with a fey athleticism, Mr.
Marshall was brimming with confidence and charm. Dawn Schultz and Taylor
Campbell were satisfactory as the young lovers, Miranda and Ferdinand, but, as
written, they are not the most vital lovers in Shakespeare, perhaps being one
of the reasons why the play never quite reaches the heights of romantic feeling
we expect from his love stories. Still, Ms. Schultz does make the most of one
of the most iconic lines in the script:
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!
Overall, the production communicates the scenario
effectively enough that it simply does work. The costumes by Lindsay Chamberlin
were a pretty effective mix of royal-class modern-dress and fantasy costumes
for the island dwellers; and the set design by Melanie VanHouten utilized a
large 3-D installation by Mollie Rabiner entitled “The Clarity Vehicle” that
was particularly effective in suggesting a sea-going vessel in the opening.
This last detail is one of the unique features of this series, that a specific
piece of sculpture is placed in the rough-hewn, natural amphitheater as the
centerpiece of the set-design. The concept may be fraught with uncertainty, but
it is also an intriguing marriage of the visual and performing arts that
emphasize the original idea of the park itself and the nascent summer series of
outdoor Shakespeare that is being attempted here.
Josephine Sculpture Park, which was opened in 2009 by Ms.
VanHouten and named for her grandmother, is a still-developing concept, a
landscape of tight-knit hills and vegetation on what was formerly a working
farm. It serves as the home for a dozen or so outdoor sculptures that are
placed for indeterminate lengths of time. Most are large-scale steel
constructions, such as Lexington artist Emily Blake McClellan’s “Suspended in
Water or Air,” a surprisingly lighter-than-air illusion of floating shapes; or
Andrew Marsh’s “Function of Toole,” which resembles a children’s playground constructed
from rusted steel, iron and bronze, a jungle gym with an industrial aesthetic
(climbing is allowed). Most of the work was not created specifically for the
location, but residencies are a part of the program, with artists working
onsite to create new sculptures. The grounds are somewhat remote, but are
actually a short distance from I-64 off HWY 127.
It will be interesting to see what develops on these idyllic
grounds over time, both as a sculptural showcase neighboring the state capitol,
and as another opportunity for theatre to reach new audiences. Watch this
space.
The Tempest
June 7-9, 14-16 @ 7
p.m.
Tickets are $10. It
is recommended that you bring lawn chairs or blankets. There are a few picnic
tables and hay bales, but the optimum seating is on a grassy slope in the
shade.
JC SummerStage
Josephine Sculpture Park
Frankfort, KY
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