All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
These famous words from As You Like It seem programmatic for Sam Mendes' production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which was one of two playa in this year's Bridge Project at the Old Vic, the other being - As You Like It. The choice reveals Mendes' fascination with those enigmatic, fragile and dark late (tragi)comedies - last year's debut season featured a dark and beutifilly poetic A Winter's Tale.
The Tempest offers many angles from which to approach it. Mendes opts for the theater metaphor, one particularly approprate to this play, in which everyone plays a role defined for them, some refuse, others don't. And isn't Prospero, anything other than a director whoc positions his actors and tells them what to do? More than any other Shakespeare play, The Tempest is dominated by a central character who singlehandedly controls the story.
And indeed, Stephen Dillane's Prospero, is more of a director, detached, sensible, rational, structured than for examples his last great predecessor on the London stage, Sir Patrick Stewart, who played the role three years ago at the Royal Shakespeare Company, a controlling schemer, an angel of vengeance, a great moralist, almost a tyrant.
Dillane moves about like a conductor, he sets the stage, a round "magic" circle, in which everything happens. Ariel is his assistant who arranges the lights, the settings, leads the characters - whocre on stage at all times - into the circle and taps them into action.
The result is a beautifully poetic flow which offers enough magic to delight the audience, enough tragedy to move and enough comedy to inspire laughter. In a way, The Tempest combines all that theatre has to offer - Sam Mendes opens this up befor our eyes. A truly fresh and entertaining look at a play we thought we knew all too well.
The Tempest offers many angles from which to approach it. Mendes opts for the theater metaphor, one particularly approprate to this play, in which everyone plays a role defined for them, some refuse, others don't. And isn't Prospero, anything other than a director whoc positions his actors and tells them what to do? More than any other Shakespeare play, The Tempest is dominated by a central character who singlehandedly controls the story.
And indeed, Stephen Dillane's Prospero, is more of a director, detached, sensible, rational, structured than for examples his last great predecessor on the London stage, Sir Patrick Stewart, who played the role three years ago at the Royal Shakespeare Company, a controlling schemer, an angel of vengeance, a great moralist, almost a tyrant.
Dillane moves about like a conductor, he sets the stage, a round "magic" circle, in which everything happens. Ariel is his assistant who arranges the lights, the settings, leads the characters - whocre on stage at all times - into the circle and taps them into action.
The result is a beautifully poetic flow which offers enough magic to delight the audience, enough tragedy to move and enough comedy to inspire laughter. In a way, The Tempest combines all that theatre has to offer - Sam Mendes opens this up befor our eyes. A truly fresh and entertaining look at a play we thought we knew all too well.
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