Review: Compassion is the Magic in THE TEMPEST at the Stratford Festival

The Stratford Festival's 74th season officially opened last night and it is fitting that the play on stage for Antoni Cimolino’s final Opening n=Night as Artistic Director is THE TEMPEST. It was famously the final play that Shakespeare wrote solo, and it follows the protagonist Prospero as he lets go of one way of life and moves on to the next. Cimolino directed this stunning production which possesses beauty and magic in its design and effects as well as in the message it delivers.

This is the second time Cimolino has directed THE TEMPEST for the Stratford Festival, the first being the 2018 production starring Martha Henry. That was also set to be the Opening Night performance, however fate had other plans back in 2018, and a (what turned out to be baseless) bomb threat caused that opening to be cancelled and the performance postponed. Although that was but a minor hiccup and every other performance of the 2018 production went off without a hitch, it was special to finally have a TEMPEST Opening Night during Cimolino's unparalleled tenure as AD- and this production warranted all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds such an event.

William Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST tells the story of Prospero (Geraint Wyn Davies), the Duke of Milan whose title was usurped by his younger brother Antonio (Gordon S. Miller) twelve years earlier. Presumed dead, Prospero and his then three-year-old daughter Miranda found refuge on a magical island. When a ship carrying the Antonio, the King, the King’s son Ferdinand (Dakota Jamal Wellman) and others, is near the island, Prospero uses magic to create a tempest and shipwreck them all. With the assistance of Prospero’s servant spirit, Ariel (Marissa Orjalo), the ship’s inhabitants are cast across the island and encounter a series of haunts and hijinks that only magic can explain. The always opportunistic Antonio and Sebastian (Micah Woods) plot to kill the king but are thwarted by Ariel, Ferdinand and a now grown Miranda (Ashley Dingwell) fall in love, and the comedic Stephano (Ben Carlson) and Trinculo (Josue Laboucane) find themselves mixed up with Caliban (Jonathan Goad) – a native inhabitant of the island and the “id” to his master Prospero’s “ego.”

This production is visually stunning. From its clever opening shipwreck sequence, right to its quieter end when Prospero chooses to give up his magic and forgive those who have wronged him. The sets and effects launches the audience into this magical world and keeps us on the edges of our seats. Much is made of the themes of magic and the natural world in THE TEMPEST. This production makes a clever and beautiful choice to celebrate the magic within the natural world. A key moment of this involves the use of majestic, glowing jellyfish puppets during the Act IV masque scene when the goddesses Iris, Ceres, and Juno celebrate the betrothal of Miranda and Ferdinand.

The character of Prospero, although arguably always representing reason and fairness, is initially a more authoritarian presence who, likely due to the trauma he has endured, refuses to relinquish control – even of the things and people he has no right to control. As the play progresses, Prospero typically evolves into a more sympathetic and likeable character as he shows his vulnerabilities and demonstrates his ability to forgive. Geraint Wyn Davies’ Prospero is never not likeable. Even the more controversial decisions the character makes are layered with the life experience and trauma that we as an audience know Prospero has endured. Wyn Davies manages to make this flawed yet striving character sympathetic and root-able from the start. You get the sense that he can be a better man, and in the end, he proves you right.

Marissa Orjalo is a revelation as Ariel. The work here by Orjalo and Movement Director Adrienne Gould allow for how this character moves to tell us so much about who she is. She is not a mere mortal like most of the characters in this play, and we see this by the way she literally moves about this world in a different way. The influence of ballet on how Orjalo embodies Ariel is incredibly effective. You simply cannot take your eyes off this enigmatic character when she is on stage.

Orjalo’s beautiful singing voice is also used to great effect when paired with gorgeous music by Composer Berthold Carrière.

Other highlights are the comedic trio of Goad, Carlson, and Laboucane and the love-stricken duo of Wellman and Dingwell.

The set and costume design by Julie Fox feels like a character unto itself and is a major contributor to the true sense of magic audiences will experience.

In a world of political unrest, online rage-baiting, and at times a desire to give in to base instincts and seek justice through revenge, it is so refreshing to sit with two thousand other humans and watch a story about someone having all the power in the world to exact his revenge, and to instead choose forgiveness and compassion. This production is filled with magical costumes and effects, but that theme of compassion is where the true magic lies.

THE TEMPEST continues in repertory at the Festival Theatre until October 24th.

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