'The Tempest' at The Old Vic

Last Thursday we went to see 'The Tempest' at The Old Vic, part of the Bridge Project and directed by Sam Mendes. The Bridge productions use American and British casts in a season of plays and, last year, I saw 'The Winter's Tale' as part of this project. This year's plays are 'The Tempest' and 'As You Like It'. I've never seen 'The Tempest' performed so this was a good opportunity to finally see it.

'The Tempest' is a tale of enchantment and love, of magical beings and exotic nature, of colour and movement... so imaging my disappointment when on came men in grey suits. We'd already had a daft scene of Prospero casting his spell by splashing water on himself and then on the circle of sand in the middle of the stage to create the storm that gives the play its name. We then switch to the ship in the middle of the storm and the men in suits and the king in an admiral's uniform. I'm afraid, that's when it started to lose me.

The set seemed to be made up of a circle of sand on the stage, presumably meant to be the beach, and the back wall of the stage painted to be like a cave wall, so there were no rustling forests to add the darkness on unknown and unseen fears. We see Ariel, the magical being enslaved to Prospero wearing a dark suit with no shirt, walking slowly and with deliberate movements around the stage, speaking slowly and unimaginatively. Even when he grows angry at his continued enslavement he only raises his voice. That was it.

But raising his voice was a good thing. I thought the sound was awful and found it hard to hear what the actors were saying. Speak up! Project! Enunciate! The bloke who was playing Gonzalo seemed to be mumbling and slurring and I just couldn't make out what he was saying. One of the few who seemed to know how to project his voice was Ron Cephas Jones who played Caliban, but how predictable to cast a black man as Caliban.

Yes, I was terribly disappointed by this. I wanted magic and wonder and was given men in suits and a dark stage. Undoubtedly some people will love its stripped back production, the clarity of vision uncluttered by expectations, etc etc etc. I just thought it was dreary. I won't go on.