Live Theater Review

Performance Title: The Tempest
Theater Name/Location: Fort Canning Park
Date reviewed: May 2, 2015
Written by: Shakespeare                                        Directed by: Braham Murray, OBE
Number of Stars (1 to 5): 3.5

Alonso, the king of Naples, is returning from his daughter’s wedding in Tunis. Accompanying him is his son, Ferdinand, his brother, Sebastian, and Antonio. Gonzalo is also on board. The ship is caught and wrecked in a storm, leaving all the passengers and crew thrown into the sea. Prospero and his fifteen year-old daughter, Miranda, are watching the shipwreck from an island. He tells her, for the first time, how they came to be on the island twelve years before, when he had been Duke of Milan, his brother Antonio, had taken his place, but with Gonzalo’s help he had escaped in a small boat with his baby daughter, Miranda, and his library of books about magic. They had ended up on the island and Prospero had turned the only inhabitant, Caliban into his slave. The Tempest is a story about how both Prospero and Miranda find their way back home, while learning new things about the mysterious island.

Although I wasn't sitting very close to the stage, I was able to see all the actors and costumes on stage. I was surprised to find that each character had a costume- costumes that fitted their characters well and that were more interesting than I had expected. The costumes played an important role, especially to me, since some parts of the performance were quite confusing for me. Their clothing helped me understand who was who, and I understood the reasoning. One of my favorite costumes that I had seen was Ariel's. She was a spirit, and her costume definitely fitted the part. It was flowy, and the lighting helped make her clothes look almost magical.

Another thing that caught my attention as I was watching The Tempest was the special effects and the set. As I had been to fort canning park before, I hadn't expected the set to be so unique. It was really interesting for me to see how they had transformed just a plain, flat stage into a really well-constructed set for a play. Looking at the stage, you could clearly tell that it was taking place on a boat. The flooring, chairs, and all, looked just how you would imagine it. I really liked the small window on the wall, where one of the characters would watch the others down from. I thought that the special effects were also interesting and added something to the performance. The lighting sounded really realistic, and helped create a more intense mood.

I think this performance was pretty good. It had great actors and all the different elements were well constructed. However, I wouldn't give it a 5 personally, just because I found it difficult to understand a lot of the dialogue taking place on stage, as I haven't had much experience with Shakespearean language.

I think that The Tempest is intended for older audiences, because of the language and the overall story. As I mentioned before, it was quite difficult for me to understand what the characters were saying which made the experience a bit less enjoyable for me, which could also apply to others who are around my age, or who have not studied theater/shakespearean language before.