The Tempest.

One of the many things about the greatest writer of all time, William Shakespeare, is that he wrote for all people, and, as such, all people can be intertwined into his plays. In fact, many of Shakespeare's plays, even prior to the "woke" culture that we currently live in, had inter-racial casting.

In this version of "The Tempest" the director John Gordon had both Prospero , or now Prospera (Nancy Rich) as the former duke of Milan; and Alonso, now Alonsa (Alice Marks) as the queen of Naples. Gordon on many fronts had some dynamic results from his characters, and although Rich was very inconsistent in her performance, many others were standouts; especially in a small space which is the Gural at ART. Under a bare stage (Craig Holmes), the focus is on the words and the actors.

"The Tempest" is a rarely seen play either on Broadway, off Broadway or even off off; Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet usually get those honors. This summer I had the privilege of seeing Twelfth Night at Axis, this too like "Tempest" is rarely seen. Both plays are deep, require a lot of attention to the plot and action.

In one of The Bards last plays written, a tempest has Prospero, daughter Miranda (Cam Grey), and two servants: Caliban (Coleman Shu-Tung) and Ariel, an excellent (Bellamy Woodside Ridiger). Ridiger was worth the price of admission! Where Tung is miscast, Ridiger commands the stage with his dance, his mystique, his ability to flutter above the play itself. As the play is based on magic, music and song, betrayal and revenge, the last act, a play within a play in scene IV, the play ratchets up both in language and tone.

One of the problems with this "Tempest", however, is that the play was written as a Folio, here Gordon does not present it as such, rather as a play putting the actors front and center, as well as all their issues front and center making for confusion at times. Whereas the Folio dealt more with fable, creation; in this work, Prospera did not represent Shakespeare, who is at the center, who gave his sign off to magic and its stage interpretations after writing "The Tempest". Instead, it brings a different story to the modern audience that we had to navigate through and make our own decisions at to what the actors are trying to portray before our eyes. It was not always clear to us what and where the plot is headed.

Cam Grey not only was a terrific Miranda, she also did a fantastic job with the music direction (I am assuming the sound as well). The sound resonated in both the storms and when the magic... the mystic side of the play came out. The sound hit the soul, it permeated throughout the theater. To me the sound was the most attractive part of the play. The costumes too by Janet Holmes captured the mood of this often overlooked Shakespeare play. The lighting design by Eric Nightingale was just ordinarily efficient. So much more could have been done with the lighting, especially with the deft sound in this play. Nightingale could have made this much cooler to watch.

Smoke and Mirror Theater put on a timely piece here. Where revenge and insurrection against a legitimate government are the basis of "The Tempest", written back in the early 1600's, much hasn't changed today! Today we have law-fare against people who want a better system, we have corruption at our law enforcement who spy on citizens who disagree with their opinions; even try to throw people in prison for misdemeanors. Shakespeare, a conservative in his political beliefs knew even back then what a crooked government looked like. That is one of the reasons he was so great in his writing!