The Tempest At The Stratford Festival
Departing Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino’s particular brand of rough magic is on fulsome display in his imaginative production of The Tempest by William Shakespeare on the Stratford Festival’s main stage.
I have long maintained that Cimolino is, arguably, the greatest interpreter of the Bard in North America, perhaps the world. It’s only fitting that his last Shakespeare at the Festival should be The Tempest, the story of another man endowed with magical powers, and widely considered to be Shakespeare’s own farewell to his theatrical career.
Even better, I am pleased to be able to say that this Tempest is very good indeed and a worthy addition to his list of Festival successes.
With the considerable help of set and costume designer Julie Fox, lighting designer Imogen Wilson, and sound designer Ranil Sonnadara, Cimolino has given his visual imagination free rein to tremendous effect.
The storm scene that opens The Tempest is the most spectacular I can remember. The fact that none of the dialog, shouted at full blast over the raging storm, is comprehensible matters not a whit. The tale is told by the billowing sail shot through with lightning, with sailors dangling from the rigging and tossed back and forth across the heaving deck, which is cunningly simulated by movement director Adrienne Gould.
There are many references in the text to the “spirits” of the island and Cimolino brings them onstage, conceived as moving bits of coral and various denizens of a tropical reef. I found the effect magical, reminding me that Shakespeare’s Tempest is something of a precursor to modern sci-fi films.
I suppose the first thing people ask of any revival of The Tempest is “How was the Prospero?” Geraint Wyn Davies is the third Prospero I have seen at the Festival. When I compare his interpretation to Christopher Plummer’s back in 2010 I am hard pressed to decide who was the better.
There are some differences in shading, with Wyn Davies’ being perhaps a bit darker, shot through with bursts of anger, but he brings considerable heft to the character. I found the dying fall of Act V, as Prospero chooses reconciliation over revenge, especially moving. The epilogue in which Wyn Davies, now no longer Prospero but the actor playing him, pleads with the audience in rhyming couplets to free him with their applause left me with a lump in my throat.
I hope this production is filmed. That way, we will all be able to turn to StratFest@Home to assess the two performances side by side. (Martha Henry’s take on the role, directed by Cimolino, is also in the StratFest@Home collection.)
As Ariel, Marissa Orjalo almost steals the show from the start. Pert, perky, and altogether captivating, she is the best Ariel you are likely to see in a good long while.
I also enjoyed Ashley Dingwell as Prospero’s daughter Miranda and Dakota Jamal Wellman as Ferdinand, both good-looking, fresh-faced newcomers from the Birmingham Conservatory. The course of their besotted love and the melting of Prospero’s heart as he watches protectively over their mutual infatuation is one of the nicest elements in this magical tale.
In another smashing visual gesture, when Prospero summons the goddesses Iris (Michelle Giroux), Ceres (Jenna-Lee Hyde), and Juno (Allison Lynch) to consecrate the coming union of the two lovers, they arrive accompanied by enormous, iridescent jelly fish floating beside them. Composer Berthold Carrière has lovingly set their songs to music. It’s a ravishing interlude.
Ferdinand, of course, is the son of the king of Naples (David Collins), one of those Prospero shipwrecked in the storm he conjured. Then, just as miraculously he saved them all and brought them ashore in perfect condition.
Among the courtly retinue, Gordon S. Miller stands out at Antonio, Prospero’s evil and usurping brother. Quite good, too, is Fiona Reid, as the gender-swapped “Gonzala,” Prospero’s old buddy from the court. I generally scoff at this sort of thing, but Reid acquits herself like the seasoned pro she is and renders the incongruity invisible.
The Tempest wouldn’t be Shakespeare without a wildly comic side plot. I have seen many actors turn themselves inside out trying to make Stephano and Trinculo funny and failing miserably. Ben Carlson and Josue Laboucane don’t have that problem. They play the characters straight – well as straight as these cartoonish figures can be played – and pull it off nicely.
Laboucane seems to be carving out a niche for himself as the go-to actor for the Bard’s harder to cast comic figures. His Dogberry was a standout in 2023’s Much Ado About Nothing, and he makes Trinculo every bit as compelling.
Caliban is the despicable yet oddly sympathetic offspring of the foul witch Sycorax, who was banished to the island long before Prospero’s arrival. Prospero is forced to use the utmost severity to hold him in check. Described as part fish, part man, all evil, the creature is nicely embodied by Jonathan Goad (Pozzo in Godot this season). As funny as his obsequious subservience to Stephano and Trinculo is it’s hard not to pity him for making the ghastly error of seeing them as potential liberators from his thralldom to Prospero.
Wyn Davies does a wonderful job with the famous speech in which Prospero looks back on his feats of magic and makes a powerful vow: “I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound, I’ll drown my book.”
No one who has had the good fortune to see all the plays he has directed during his tenure as Artistic Director will be able to hear those lines without thinking of Cimolino. I sincerely hope that, while he might lay aside his staff and book to take a well deserved rest from his labours, this supremely talented director will return to enchant future audiences, either at the Stratford Festival or elsewhere.
Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.™
The Tempest continues at the Stratford Festival’s Festival Theatre through October 24, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the Stratford Festival website.
Footnote: At the matinee I attended the house was at a mere 33% of capacity. It didn’t seem they were selling the balcony at all. I find this both depressing and ominous. If you love Shakespeare, come see this terrific production – and bring your friends.
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