Word: prosperoous
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...takes a great degree of theatrical skill to turn the box like dimensions of the Ex into anything other than one of Edgar Allan Poe's tomblike vaults-let alone invest it with the otherworldly aura of Prospero's mysterious island. Of itself, Robert McCleary's woodland setting, overgrown with mosses and shadows though it was, did not overcome this difficulty. But Boorstin's incantatory approach more than compensated. The first scene opened after a long, disoriented period of darkness during which three sprites, among them Ariel, introduced the audience to the magical qualities of their island world. The sprites...
...Prospero, Bernard Holmberg properly dominated the plot's complications. His long soliloquies demonstrated the remarkable range of control-both as written and performed-that Prospero exercises over the other inhabitants of the island. Holmberg was affectionately tender to his daughter Miranda, firmly in command of the fairy Ariel; angrily severe in his orders to Caliban his slave. His Prospero possessed the strength and virility to make the aging character less concerned with his own leave-taking than with ensuring himself that those around him awake to the significance of their destined relationships in the proper spirit of awe and responsibility...
Elin Diamond's sensual Ariel complemented Holmberg's methodical Prospero by igniting in him those sparks of sexual creativity that, as much as much as anything else, trigger dramatic confrontations on the island. Interwoven with corresponding discussions of language's uses as well as interconnecting considerations of freedom and servility, the sexual energy of this production drew parallels among Miranda, her lover Ferdinand, Ariel, and Caliban in their individual comings-to-term with themselves...
...scenes in which Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, the King of Naples' drunken jester (slightly overplayed by Dan Hermann), conspire to wrest the island from Prospero's control are especially humorous. Since Bergreen has chosen to direct the play as a comedy, the celebration of Ferdinand and Miranda's marriage in the fourth act, at which Prospero displays his magical powers by creating a host of spirits, is played in a light and frivolous vein, Iris and Ceres reciting their lines like girls in a sixth-grade English class. This parody of the wedding hymn, necessary to maintain the exaggerated acting...
Ferdinand, portrayed by John Archibald, and Miranda, played innocently by Kent Wilson, are starry-eyed lovers caught under Prospero's magic spell. Rick Carr as Alonzo, the King of Naples, is the least active of the cast, and at times his performance seems uninspired...