In the midst of the profound late-career reverie that is “The Tempest,” now in an attractive Chicago Shakespeare Theater rendition–attractive not being quite the same as remarkable–the author tosses in a line so lame it is positively cheering.
Act IV, Scene I: Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, has lived for years on an enchanted isle nursing grudges and practicing black magic. He is throwing his daughter Miranda a little betrothal masque, featuring sprites and nymphs and music wondrous strange.
The skit (here supplanted by lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets and lyrics from “Love’s Labour’s Lost”) goes on a bit. And then out of nowhere Prospero more or less says, whoops, what was I thinking? I had “forgot that foul conspiracy of the beast Caliban and his confederates against my life.” He forgot. Thanks, sprites, we’ll call you.
This is a supremely dotty moment–an emblem of Shakespeare’s disregard for convention or plausibility at this rich and strange point in his career.
“The Tempest” is an “insubstantial pageant,” a masque featuring a masque-within-a-masque, that manages to say a lot about power, authority and abuses thereof.
Some productions of “The Tempest” favor the play’s conscious theatricality–the fun stuff. Others use those elements for something richer, more troubling. Director Barbara Gaines wants a bit of both.
The results are shiny and impressive–pretty, as well as pretty good. The production concludes with a lovely aerial ballet. Alaric Jans’ music offers lulling opportunities for some gorgeous six-part vocal harmony.
Yet while the sprites are up there in their rigs, twirling, you may sense there’s another, tougher-minded version of the story unfolding elsewhere on the island.
Larry Yando’s Prospero hints at this other “Tempest.” He creates an often frightening sorcerer, bent on revenge until he sees a road to redemption. Yando’s spiky gray hair sits atop a pair of wild eyes, and this Prospero appears on the verge of sociopathology. That’s what the performance, and the production, could use–a fuller sense of Prospero’s darker corners, the ones shared by his slave Caliban, the island’s rightful owner, played by Scott Jaeck.
Two standouts in the recent, excellent Court Theatre “Hamlet”–Cassandra Bissell, sharp and no-nonsense, and hearty Timothy Edward Kane–portray Miranda and Ferdinand. Greg Vinkler makes for an especially welcome Stephano, drunkard and would-be assassin.
Scenic designer Neil Patel’s island looks like a giant hardwood surfboard, smooth and imposing, surrounded by blue neon-lit water. The set serves as a playground for the work of the other designers, though Gaines and her team don’t know when to say when. The effects and flourishes keep coming. Most problematic, sound designer Robert Neuhaus’ constant, realistic thunderclaps and “Star Wars” zwwwwoooooop effects accompanying each wave of Prospero’s light sword, or “staff,” aren’t what this magical island needs.
In the end, the show is its own masque. It’s diverting and smartly paced. But this Shakespearean self-portrait of an artist nearing retirement–a dream unspooling in real time–can be much more.
———-
“The Tempest”
When: Through June 16
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave.
Phone: 312-595-5600
