Word: prospero
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...great achievement, to ideals. But a self-subverting demon was furiously at work as well. A pre-emptive annihilation of self: Hart describes what a great President he would have been, and then -- poof! -- is gone. The fantasy makes reality in the air, and then annihilates it. Hart as Prospero...
Ronald Reagan has a genius for American occasions. He is a Prospero of American memories, a magician who carries a bright, ideal America like a holograph in his mind and projects its image in the air. This week the sky will be splashed with celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. The President will hand out the sparklers, and the nation will gaudily salute the American dream. Reagan, master illusionist, is himself a kind of American dream. Looking at his genial, crinkly face prompts a sense of wonder: How does he pull...
...fair, director Patrick Bradford's Tempest is worth seeing for its first-rate performances. Eric Oleson is superb as the aging Gonzalo, shuffling and pontificating with perfect ease. Nick Lawrence pulls off a highly credible Prospero; Naama Potok and Andrew Sullivan are convincing as the youthful lovers Miranda and Ferdinand...
What makes the play memorable, though, is the virtuoso acting of Ben Evett as Ariel and Kerrick Johnson as Caliban, the sorceror Prospero's two slaves. Ariel and Caliban are pivotal figures, representing the opposing realms of Air and Earth that lie at the heart of Shakespeare's thematic dilemma. And in this production, Evett and Johnson can hardly do wrong, expertly treading the line between man and spirit that make these two of Shakespeare's more difficult roles...
Fidelity to the text is indeed the trademark of this Tempest, but it makes the play too slow and too long. Shakespeare's shortest play should be enchanting, like one of Prospero's spells; as it is, Bradford's production seems longer than its lengthy three hour running time. The problem is compounded by the fact that the actors speak their lines very slowly, as if too reverent of Shakespeare's poetry...