May 14, 2005
Tempting Tempest
Terry Teachout puts up his review of The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre in Dee Cee. Money quote:
On stage, it's a fantastic procession of sights and sounds that will set your head to spinning. Kate Whoriskey, the director, may fancy herself a purveyor of ideas, but in fact she's something infinitely more precious—a natural-born stage magician….
As I mentioned earlier, the Missus and her class went to see this production last week. She said almost exactly the same thing - that the stagecraft was fantastic. She also added, however, that the acting seemed a bit on the flat side, which is too bad. As I also said earlier, my major advisor in college had played Prospero at some point and when he quoted in class, one could almost feel the air beginning to tingle.
the missus is right--we've all heard abt how shaks and co liked to do as much spectacle as they could manage at the technically challenged globe, but the real magic is---or should be anyway--in the words and the actors' ability to get them across so as to make the air tingle. i once had a professor--a middle aged woman who probably was not overly sober most of the time--who could read ALL the parts in, say, the romeo/juliet balcony scene and make one's hackles absolutely rise. now that's theatrical magic! nothing wrong with a little whiz-bang on the side, but you've gotta get the words right first. olivier could do both pretty well.
Posted by: mom at May 14, 2005 02:19 PM
