The Tempest

Melbourne Shakespeare Company presents Shakespeare’s classic tale of betrayal and forgiveness with a punk sensibility (Cortney Jarvis) and 1980s music. Their version is light-hearted, disciplined and funny, with plenty of opportunities for the audience to join in.

The whole company works effectively together. Alsonso (Rebecca Morton) adds pathos over the loss of her son Ferdinand, and leads the shipwrecked sailors. Alsonso’s bodyguards look and act the part. The young lovers, Ferdinand (Andrew Dang) and Miranda (Liliana Dalton) display all the emotion of falling in love, Caliban (Michael Sakinofsky) is brooding, and Trinculo (Emma Austin) and Stephano (Jalen Ong) delightfully funny, but Prospero (Aram Geleris) and Ariel (Katherine Pearson) steal the show with their intensity.  All the action is carefully planned (Tref Gare) and very competently performed and the physical comedy is especially well done. The singing and music are of patchy quality but always fully committed to and exuberant.

There were intermittent showers throughout the performance which the audience, being from Melbourne, managed with a blooming of umbrellas and raising of hoods. The sound was not up to the challenge of the location and the rain made it worse. Even these effectively projected voices were often not audible and needed amplification.

This company is adding diverse elements to Shakespeare’s heady language and this performance is lively, energised, involving and satisfying.

Ruth Richter

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