zachlittrell 's review for:

The Tempest by William Shakespeare
3.0

The mythology of Prospero's little island is my favorite character in the play. A dead witch whose name still haunts her servants. Invisible spirits trapped in trees. A manbeast that conspires to kill his master. There's something more and eternal about the setting that completely eclipses Prospero's small plot for revenge. While on the other hand, it transforms Miranda and Ferdinand's first meeting into a magnificent religious experience in two young bodies recognizing each other.

Even if the story herks and jerks its way to its natural conclusion, The Tempest is fascinating for its self-confidence. While one of the shortest Shakespeare plays, it demands its cast to buy into it. Any twerp and tramp can caterwaul Romeo and Juliet, but it's a leap of faith for an actress to inhabit innocence-incarnate Miranda discovering men, or an actor to scurry, and prowl, and growl across the stage as Caliban, who desperately misses his mother. It's a entire play of absent mothers, and unrealized ideas. I don't remember half the character's names, but I can remember the feel of the sand, and the dirt, and the wind.