Word: prosperos
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...neglect of the play is understandable--Shakespeare never painted a more thoroughly ugly, corrupt society than the Vienna of Measure for Measure. The rulers are hypocrites, the police are incompetent, and even the clowns are annoying. The Duke, a Prospero-like character who stage-manages much of the plot, takes a good look around his city and decides it needs a house-cleaning. But he's too good-hearted to enforce the stringent laws himself, so he abdicates in favor of his deputy Angelo, leaving to wander the country as a monk...
...wonderful to see Olivier this often these days, and it almost doesn't matter that the movies are so bad. If only he could liven up every dumb thriller or grace every little comedy. And if only he could go back to the stage too, and do Lear and Prospero and any new, good play that comes along. Screw Hitler--let's clone Oliver...
...extent, Heathcliff, Archie Rice in The Entertainer, Graham Weir in Term of Trial and Andrew Wyke in Sleuth. Perhaps, many hope, he will return to the stage someday, if not to undertake a more mature Lear (he did it in '46 at the Old Vic), then perhaps to portray Prospero. There are those of us who would swim the Atlantic for a chance to see that...
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...