Review Roundup: Theatre Royal Haymarket's THE TEMPEST

The Tempest, the third production in the Trevor Nunn Season, opened last night, 6 September and is booking until 29 October 2011. Set and costume designs are by Stephen Brimson Lewis, with lighting by Paul Pyant, sound by Paul Groothuis and music by Shaun Davey. The Tempest is produced by the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company, Duncan C Weldon, Paul Elliott & Terri and Timothy Childs. 

Joining Ralph Fiennes, who leads the company as Prospero, are Nicholas Lyndhurst as Trinculo, Chris Andrew Mellon (Sebastian), Michael Benz (Ferdinand), Tom Byam Shaw (Ariel), Jim Creighton (Adrian), Ian Drysdale (Francisco), Elisabeth Hopper (Miranda), Andrew Jarvis (Gonzalo), James Simmons (Alonso), Giles Terera (Caliban), Julian Wadham (Antonio) and Clive Wood (Stephano) as well as Steven Butler, Eke Chukwu, Meline Danielewicz, Gisele Edwards, Hayley Ellenbrook , Grahame Fox, Charlie Hamblett, Jami Reid-Quarrell and Itxaso Moreno.

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard: Fiennes's lonely, controlling Prospero is not so very far removed from his Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter. As this master illusionist - once duke of Milan, now a desert island exile - he is brooding and saturnine, at times resembling a ragged holy man. He suggests the steely certainty of an autocrat. Yet his performance, marked by a lucid way with Shakespeare's verse, has a dignity and humanity that make the character more sympathetic than is usually the case.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: It's a deeply traditional production, with none of the startling innovations of a Rupert Goold, but one that coherently and satisfyingly treats the play as a parable about the triumph of virtue over vengeance.

Michael Coveney, The Independent: Fiennes is loving every minute of his creation until he suddenly snaps into mission mode, gathering his project to a head and summoning his final resolution in those great tumbling speeches, which he discharges painfully, haltingly and with an impressive fluent technical accomplishment.

Charles Spencer, The Telegraph: But the worst fault of all in this tedious and misguided production is that Nunn sentimentalises the play. In Shakespeare's text Prospero's forgiveness is hard won, the sinners' repentance highly qualified. Here, Nunn tries to close the play in a golden glow, with Prospero actually kissing Caliban on the forehead and shaking his evil brother's hand. The ending ought to be much tougher.

Maxwell Cooter, Whatsonstage: Compared to more recent incarnations, Fiennes presents Propero as neither a domineering tyrant nor as a manipulator, but as a world-weary middle-aged man. Even when he's subjecting Ferdinand to his tasks, there's little sense of any dominance. Fiennes is a superb verse speaker and he brings some tenderness to the role, not just to his daughter - there's a real sense of Prospero as a father - but also to Ariel.

 

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