The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park bids farewell, until 2025, with a production of “The Tempest” that is full of bounce, but strangely resistant to its source material.
, the enchantment of the text melds with the physical surroundings. The stage is filled with a cross-section of the city in dance and song.
The preservation of this theater-going experience is vital, but do not attend this au revoir expecting a conventional-lite; a bright and peppy 90-minutes with some Shakespearean text and depth left intact, but not much—and instead almost an anti-inclination to dig for it, or the deeper, darker currents of the text.
Here, with an excellent and striding Renée Elise Goldsberry playing her, we have a kinder, gentler Prospero . A tame and whimsical Ariel doesn’t seem to mind too much that her wizardly master keeps delaying and delaying her promised freedom. Even Caliban isn’t too scary.
Large parts of the text are excised to make way for enthusiastic musical numbers about how Miranda and Ferdinand are vibing each other. It’s enjoyable and sweet, but just as the text suffers in comparison to music, a boppymeans the characters’ thornier interior dilemmas are muted. Goldsberry is certainly a commanding Prospero, especially as she watches her daughter fall for the son of her enemy. But what is missing is Prospero’s long attachment to power and subjugation.
In fact, the whole play passes off the yearning for dominance as a comedy to be vamped up , or a milder passion that Prospero gives up easily in service of forgiveness and a future for her daughter off the island. You never doubt this Prospero will free Ariel and the sprite doesn’t appear to doubt it, either. They both are quite loveable.Wilberth Gonzalez’s costumes are superb .
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