'What is the nature of Prosperos power?' That was a question posed to a bright faced class of theatrical designers during a discussion of The Tempest. If you were to watch the production currently happening on Mary Guise Barge, youd think it was a gin and tonic. Prospero, in this production played by a woman in leather trousers, rarely feels fully in control of the island or her environment. In lieu of power, she just come across as a bitter old woman constantly drowning her sorrows in a drink. The rest of the interpretation has nothing more than a basic vision of characters, and is plagued by uneven acting and singing. For example, the monster Caliban just prowled around, it was difficult to tell variation in his state through the play. It was very much of a single keel, with neither the comedy or tragedy ebbing.Despite the shoddy character work this production does have a very strong grasp of space. While so many other site specific works during the festival have trouble using their locations, this piece creates a new vantage point every few minutes, looking from the barge to the quay and vice versa. What was inexplicable, was the repetitive and random inclusions of top 40 pop songs into the text (sung with varying levels of ability). When Miranda broke into Beyonces 'All the Single Ladies' after her first love scene with Ferdinand, the production number that ensued felt remotely interesting, but as they piled on, they just felt more bafflingly unnecessary.
