Critical Analysis Of The Performance Of Illiam Shakespeare's Play Tempest

The stage was set up as a series of platforms. The main platform was the lowest one and had two smaller platforms on each side that served also as step platforms to the center tall platform. The platform set-up was asymmetrical and the shapes of the platform were all different abstract shapes. On the right side, there was a circular step platform (the smallest of all of the platforms) followed by a bigger platform before stepping to the center tall platform. On the left side, there were two medium sized platforms adjacent to one another that served as steps while creating good stage room. Furthermore, in front of each raised platform, covering the vertical empty space in between varying height leveled platforms, there were curtain like draped that extended until the base of the next platform or ground in the case of the base platform. There were accent lights under these drapes that could be seen when the stage lights were turned off in between acts and sometimes visible when the stage lights were dim enough. These lights looked great in my opinion. Another perk of this stage setup was the ability for actors to enter the stage area by coming from under the center tall platform which had the tallest vertical drapes (such that actors could crawl into the lower platform). Initially, I had not noticed that they were entering through the crawl-hole, so I was almost surprised at how the actors got on stage.

The platform drapes also matched the drapes that were part of the scenic design. There were several sets of drapes hanging from the top of the stage till just above the ground. They were blowing with the air flow of the theater and were of slightly creased and reflective material. Lights were placed at the bottom of these drapes such that they could reflect light as such. It was interesting to see how the reflection colors changed as the lighting of the stage changed. This effect kept the stage area always looking somewhat different based on the color tones of the currently on stage lights. The scenery was simple but very effective and cool looking in my opinion.

The lights were often a combination of several tones. Various scenes had very different color schemes and I enjoyed the visual range in the stage look per scene. Lighting changed often. A lot more light action was implemented in comparison with the production of Oleanna. Lights were constantly changing. One surprising lighting effect that I noticed was that there seemed to be some sort of pattern covering some of the stage lights such that the shadow of the pattern stencil would appear on the floor of the stage platforms. This looked great and added to the magical look of the Tempest. I think the Tempest had a tremendously unique look. It was aerie, mystic, fantastical, colorful, and old-fashioned all at the same time. I think out of all the factors of theater production, lighting was one of the biggest factors in creating the Tempest’s look of magic and unreality.

As far as sound goes, I noticed that many actors had body microphone wireless transmitter packs attached to their costumes. In one character’s case, the microphone signal was alt erred to create a distorted/echo effect. This worked well with that specific character’s nature which was on a very ferry like theme. She had her entire face painted and a puffy dress that appeared somewhat ‘cloud-like’. The overall look in combination with the sound was magical and unreal. Furthermore with sound, in certain acts, there was a folk sounding song. There was also a Congo sounding drum song that was played with the fish breathed character that was decked out in messy camouflage. Another sound element used in the play was lightning. In order to create a lightining effect for the audience, the designers combined a lighting sound with several strobe light flashes simulating the effect of lighting (while other stage lights were mostly off or very dim; such that the lighting effect could appear more realistic).

As far as props go, there was a liquor flask that several characters drank out of in one of the acts. This flask sounded empty whenever it hit any surface. And was actingly drunk by several characters but since it was empty, the drinking looked extremely fake. For example, the level of the liquid in the bottle would have probably been far consumed the way they were drinking. Sometimes one character would sip the bottle as if it was nearly empty then the next person to drink it right afterwards would take a sip as if the bottle was relatively full. The result just did not look realistic. If I was to re-do this production, I think one thing I would do is add water to the bottle and hopefully all the drinking in that act would look at least somewhat real. Since the characters were not actually drinking anything, they would often sip the bottle and then start talking immediately when in reality, it takes a second for the liquid to clear the throat before one can start talking. There were several sword props used. I have no complains about those. They looked cool and appropriate for a Shakespearean sword look. There were also lots of wooden fire logs used. Sometimes only one was necessary but in some scenes, multiple logs needed to be on stage at the same time. My favorite prop was the staff carried by the mother. It looked like a wooden tree branch shaft with some random puffy straw looking stuff at the top (matched the platform drapes and background drapes). It was also patterned artistically throughout. It looked somewhat native American but with a more fantasy ‘Tempest’ twisted look.

In regards to costumes, I think this was one of the most defining theater production factors in the creation of the resulting look of this Tempest production. The costumes were very unique, nothing like normal clothing. Many characters, especially female ones, were barefooted. Other characters wore black leather shoes. Very basic looking shoes at that; the type that I would have expected colonial era Americans to wear. One guy working in the woods had knee high leather boots, which I thought was a good costume design idea because it further rejustified the current stage setting which was taking place in the forest. Most of the characters wore some type of necklace. They were usually longer than average. The guy characters would have significantly larger necklaces with very big beads or chains that hung very low. Most of the female characters wore some kind of dress. One character, who was supposed to look extra magical, was a female wearing gloves, a painted face, and at one point, a spandex bodysuit. On this costume, there was blue graffiti like patterning. In general, the patterning on all the costumes was very nontraditional. Several characters used a strange fabric with an intertwining pattern for their costumes. For the guys, they made full suits out of this light fabric and kept the pattern horizontal to their figure. A girl character, used the same fabric pattern except in a vertical position compared to their body. Then another character had that same exact fabric, again, except diagonally positioned on their body when worn. The patterns of all the costumes were very unusual / artistic. The young girl who tried to court the guy character, wore an accent shall around her that looked good for the tempest look as opposed to just a simple looking dress. Everything from the costumes to every other factor of production looked flowing, cloudy, and literally, never linear. The shall worn by this character took a simple looking dress and clouded it with a puffing effect (provided by shall) to give it a Tempest look. Many of the costumes used in the Tempest were too unusual to ever really wear in real life under modern fashion standards.

My favorite costume piece from the production was a purple shall/cape that had a very ‘king-like’ feeling to me. It was worn on the back of one of the male characters as if it was a cape / robe. Furthermore with costumes, every piece seemed to be as unusual as the designers could have possibly made it. I found myself constantly paying attention to random elements of character’s costumes, especially the hats, which as a hat collector myself, I can say I have ever in my life seen hats looking like what the actors wore in this production. I was pretty intrigued at the creativity apparent in all costume aspects used in the Tempest. The only simple costume effect used in this production was the use of bare feet on some characters.

In conclusion, the Tempest was a good production and a positive viewing experience for me. Surprisingly, I was somehow able to follow Shakespeare’s wording better than I have ever been able to. Unfortunately, I still had a pretty tough time following the plot closely, but understood the most of it. Everything was grand and fantasy-like. The entire look was unreal.