We take a look at what is being said about Tim Crouch’s production running at the theatre until the 12th April.
The Guardian: *** “The production comes alive in the second half, the set and lighting creating magic even if the play attempts to abjure Prospero’s (and Shakespeare’s) studied alchemy.”
WhatsOnStage: *** “Equal parts haunting and frustrating, sinister and unpredictable, this is a challenging treatment of a familiar play. It won’t be for everyone – a concession Crouch even builds into the production in a particularly funny moment near the end – but chances are you’ll be discussing it or thinking about it long after the performance is over. As a testament to the power of storytelling, it’s a considerable success.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “For Miranda, the brave new world is the audience. For the audience, in turn, this production is a discombobulating experience in which it isn’t easy to keep track of all the narrative layers or to fully grasp what it means, yet it has a distinctive beauty and theatricality of its own.”
Everything theatre: **** “If an audience member is looking for The Tempest, they should look elsewhere. But this production has so much to offer any theatregoer seeking to understand better the world of artifice they patronise. Crouch and associate director Justina Kehinde have captured the meaning of theatre onstage, and whilst the storyline is ironically lost in this production about storytelling, this is a performance where it is a privilege to get lost in the power of theatre.”
The Arts Desk: *** “Orlando Gough’s stunning compositions, ethereally performed by the singers Emma Bonnici and Victoria Couper, use hums, trills, and wild-as-the-wind melodies to evoke the sounds of an enchanted natural world. There are some wonderfully magnetic moments, not least Miranda’s ‘brave new world’ encounter with more humans than she has ever seen before. As Prospero, Crouch is always fascinating to watch, and his authority when he decides to use it is as chilling as it is abrupt. Yet despite the many virtues of making this a conceptual experiment rather than an enchanted isle, at the end it feels all too easy to leave it.”
All That Dazzles: *** “At times when Crouch’s mischief breaks into the theatre, the audience comes alive; nevertheless, for someone coming to see The Tempest for the first time, you would feel very much adrift in the meta-mist. For those daring to ride the self-aware wave, there is fun in the prickly intelligence; for others, the sea change will leave you frustrated and marooned.”
The Reviews Hub: *** 1/2 “This rendition of The Tempest remains a confident and often delightful production whose pleasures lie in performance, intelligence and spectacle.”
The Telegraph: **** “Experimental theatre-maker Tim Crouch turns Shakespeare’s valedictory play on its head in a gimmicky but compelling fashion.”
The Independent: *** ” There’s not a Shakespearean rule this production won’t break”
Broadway World: *** “There is clearly a rich seam for Tempest adaptations that engage with the text’s metatheatrical qualities, and this kind of adaptation could easily bring out the play’s feminist and post-colonial undertones. But this version spends too much time on drawing out every possible element of metatheatre, and not enough on what those elements might mean.”
British Theatre Guide: “There are moments of theatrical magic, but though the unevenness may be deliberate, it can be trying. While new interpretations will always be welcome—and this Ariel is an intriguing one—I found the presentation of Alonso, Ferdinand, Caliban and Prospero himself much easier to respond to than the production’s eccentricities.”
Time Out: **** “It’s a cerebral and uncompromising – but pretty funny! – Tempest from a man who has devoted his life to deconstructing the nature of theatre in the way that some physicists devote their lives to smashing atoms.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/the-tempest/