"The Tempest" - Review

   First I would like explain, that this is a science blogger, and it is important remember that art is science too, because make science is related with creation, research, and hard study, all this parameters are input on art, because art is important as science!

   This review is divided in two parts: the first I did explanation just about “The Tempest”, that I watched twice, because I would like to see in two different perspectives this play. In the second part I did my explanation a little bit about actor’s performance, the public expectation, and I put here, on final commentaries, my personal observation about before and after the presentation.

1. "The Tempest” by Shakespeare on The Globe, May 12^th,2013:

   This Shakespeare’s work is very interesting and could be explored by a different ways, I saw the same play on two different views on The Globe, and I read this work a lot of times (in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish version), I can say that is a magnificent work, and of course I prefer the English version, I’ll not put here the specific editors.

   The Tempest on The Globe theatre was a very good experience, because the place helpful to insert the public on the “Shakespeare’s world”, of course The Globe was made to give us this feeling. 

   Well, in terms of where is the better place on The Globe to watch “The Tempest”, I just can say that the yard, if you could arrive early to take a good place, is the best place to see the play. On the middle gallery is good too, because you could sit and see more details that sometimes you could not to see on the yard, due to some heads in front of your, but on the yard, you have more interaction with the play, the feeling is as you do part of the play and not just more one viewer on the theatre.

   I could see on the booth places, yard and middle gallery, and I prefer on yard. About the scenario I can say that is a very good theatre “montage”, because you can see all acts with the same scenario, but you can “see” the idea to each part of the play, it is as I hope to a Shakespeare’s work, and I am very satisfy with this, simple but all the objects are on perfectly “harmony” with all scenes and acts on the play.

Sonorous effects and music receive my special congratulations, because they work very well, with a good time, and there is no way to be inserted on the “fantasy” if you have not a good sonorous effects team!  

   Characterization and make-up were as I hoped, it was looks like an Shakespeare’s work, however I need to say that Caliban costume was perfectly, more than I had imagined, unfortunately with Ariel costume was not as wonderful as Caliban, maybe I hoped something with more powerful expression, because Ariel is a powerful spirit, but well, it is possible see he like angel, but I am not sure if this is the idea in this play. Other personages have a normal costume, as expected. I just put one special commentary about Ariel costume, they change a little bit his costume during the play, because it is on the script, I think that they were creative with the changing, but the mainly costume on my opinion could be better. 

   The Tempest presentation was fantastic on the conjoint, had special effects, I recommend to all, but I think that you need booking early, because I did mine very early and the best places already was sold. I felt the Shakespeare’s work, they inserted a funny tags in the presentation, it really the great theatre’s work, well done, well prepared, but I have some reservation with some actor’s performance in this day, maybe I am very exigent, but I believe that if you will do a Shakespeare’s work you must to be inserted on the work’s idea, and I see that this important skill is missed to some actors.

    2.   Actor’s performance on “The Tempest”, May 12^th, 2013:

   I had been a lot of Shakespeare’s works on my life, I did when I was young, and I know that it is not so easier, I believe that all actors could be get the “Shakespeare’s spirit" , but as we can see in a lot of kind of professions, some people does not work more by work’s love but just to money’s love. It is the same on art’s profession, people begin this area because have love by this, but with the time, they forget the love, the passion and thinks just in to be famous and get money, it is sad, but it is true! I saw this on the presentation, I saw on actor’s performance, which some has a great performance, but some had a “mechanical” performance.

   My idea in this review is not criticize the person, but just put my opinion by actor’s performance on The Tempest, and I will put here a commentary about the public expectation in general (this is write with observations on The Globe before, during and after the presentation, and based on internet reviews and commentaries about the actor’s performance) on the final commentaries.   

   I’ll start with Prospero, casting by Roger Allam: as expected, he had a very good performance, he is brilliant! Sometimes, when he was on scene I forgot that I was on a theatre, I felt as I was on the history, but he is a “Shakespeare’s actor” and it is a minimum that the public hoped on his performance. 

   Miranda and Ferdinand was good, but I think that could be better, I already saw better performance with this two personages, I feel on the first presentation that both was mechanical, looks like there are no public, there are no real performance, just a mirror in front of they and they are practice the script, but on the second presentation, I feel that they are more inside on the presentation, I believe that more people feel the same, some scenes was very nice, but some was very mechanically, sometimes when they did a scene I sleeping with open eyes.

   Alonso, and the others, had a good performance, they “interact” with the public, a little bit, but they improve the presentation with their scenes, and it was great performance.

   My favorite actor’s performance was the big surprise to me, Caliban, casting by James Garnon, was fantastic, and I could see that the public felt the same, he made his personage take the mainly position. I need to say that if I did not know very well The Tempest, I will thought that Caliban was the mainly personage on this presentation, in fact he did part on the mainly group, but when he was on scene it looks like “The Caliban” play!  He was a really theatre's actor, he interact with the public, he used the personage, not just reproduced the script, but he really works with the personage, was fantastic.

   Ariel’s performance was good, he had very great moments, but I believe that Colin Morgan maybe is not a theatre’s actor, because he was mechanical sometimes. I do not understand why, but a lot of times that he made his scene I felt as I was watching a beginner theatre actor, and we know that is not true, because Colin Morgan is young, but is a very good actor. Perhaps, I hoped so much, because I am a Merlin's fan, and there he was fantastic! I am sorry by this, but in general his performance on The Tempest was, for me, in the most part mechanical.

Final commentaries:

   I arrived very early on The Globe, to feel the place, to see how works the public information before start the play, and well, the public information was a little bit confused, because the person say to me enter in one door, and it was not the correct way, but could be just one mistake. People in general were anxious with the play, but I did not to see a lot of people interested on special actors, in fact my daughter, 8 years, has special interest on Colin Morgan, to her he was like a “heroes”, but she is a child, people in general know who is Colin Morgan, but I felt that the special actors there were Roger Allam and James Garnon followed by Colin Morgan. After the play I saw just two girls waiting by Colin Morgan, because this, my daughter did me wait too, but wow, I will be true here, before I hoped that Colin Morgan was a great person, and he is as expected! I just hoped that he interact with his fans, but, I did not understand, he hides his face all time, as if there were many people waiting for him and he did not want to be recognized, but in fact I was there a long time and I saw just two person.

   I believe that Colin Morgan is an inexperienced star yet, maybe because he hide his face and he has fear of his fans. He does not need fear, his fans that make him a famous person, and in the showbiz world how more fans you have, more works and more famous you will be.   And just to finish this discussion, if you love the Merlin’s series, believe me this series was success because have a very good team, not just Colin Morgan, he won the prize of best actor, but he does not work alone, and The Tempest is a very different work, with a different cast, and you will not to see in The Tempest the same Colin’s performance that we saw on Merlin's Series.

   I was very sad with some people on The Globe that no respect the rules, I saw people take pictures during the play, and recording too! The public must to understand, that this comportment is not acceptable on theatre, actors need a good ambient to work, and The Globe said that they will do a movie from this play, wait to the official movie, wait to the official pictures, if is forbidden it is important to respect!

   I would like to acknowledge the cast and say that to do two performance on the same day is not easier, and they are very great.

The cast and people that work to make this play possible have my congratulations by this wonderful work.

   “The Tempest” is a fantastic play, if you enjoy Shakespeare’s work I say that on The Globe you will find a great plays, now I will wait the next play, I am thinking to buy tickets to “Midnight Summer Dreams” and I hope that I could see there “Hamlet” as soon. But if you do not like Shakespeare’s work, The Globe is a good place to start this wonderful experience.

I would like apologize me by my poor english, I am not a very good english speaker, but I did this review in English to make accessible to all people languages, later I will put this in portuguese and maybe in french or spanish too.

Kelly Cristine Camargo, Ph.D