Word: prospero
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Throughout the first half of the production, the innovative insertions are, with a few exceptions, burdensome and even annoying. Jeff Rothstein as the speaking Prospero saves the first half with a strong, well-modulated voice and a smooth characterization of the nobleman, set adrift years before, who seeks his revenge through sorcery. Marc Baum sparkles as Caliban, the semi-human creature who tries to escape his enslavement to Prospero. Baum bellows and mugs marvelously as the half-sane, half-stupid creature, off-setting weak performances by all three Mirandas, all of whom seem drugged...
...actors of The Tempest all put a maximal effort into their parts. Particularly noteworthy are Johanna Defenderfer and Eva Simmons as Stephano and Trinculo, a pair of fear-stricken, drunken and very funny sailors. Ralph Zito turns in a macho, manic performance as Ariel, the spirit forced to do Prospero's blading. Joe White, as Sebastian, gets off some well-delivered lines, and Paul Rosta is a perfectly doddering, if one-dimensional, old fool as Gonzalo. The rest of the sailors and nobles are adequate, as is the troupe of harpies who pop up sporadically and deliver the most effective...
...considerably trimmed from the Russian version - one is put longingly in mind of Forbidden Planet. A lightheaded piece of American scifi, Forbidden Planet (1956) was a genial reworking of The Tempest in which some American astronauts were trapped on a distant planet. There a wizard, a stand-in for Prospero, conjured up an unconquerable force field of "monsters from the id." Hearing this, one of the astronauts inquired without hesitation, "What's the id?" The people who made Solaris may be beyond such inspired silliness, but pomposity is no fair substitute...
...characters stare at their feet and examine themselves. Tyler desperately grapples for Missy and she, not wanting to deal with new-realized realities of existence, squirms away from him. Otis finds his campers rebellious, and as vandals invade his property and ruin his rowboats this pathetic non-Prospero finds his dream dissolved, his charms overthrown; "what strength I have's mine own" is not very much...
Bette Henritze once more plays Paulina, who takes guff from nobody. She finds a good balance between righteous indignation and humor, and rises to the task of becoming a sort of female Prospero, guiding the course of events. Miss Henritze's voice does not have as wide a pitch range as one would like, but she uses what she has with impressive skill. William Larsen also repeats as her husband Antigonus, who is pursued and eaten by a (wisely stylized) bear...