Theatre Department brings new twist to Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’

    “The Tempest,” a play that has been put on so many times any performance may be seemingly predictable.
    But the GCSU Theatre Department breathes new life into an old story. In total commitment to the performance, the actors in the play have fully thrown themselves in their roles, memorizing verbatim the painstaking language of Shakespeare.
    I was greatly impressed with the clear enunciation taken with even the most difficult soliloquies. But like any Shakespeare play, the untrained ear might have a hard time catching the subtle humor, let alone the modern day interpretation that is all but buried beneath the Shakespearean speech.
    The saving grace to the intended twist is the fabulous costumes that include monsters and spirits, transvestites, waspy politicians and urban chic.
    Although the play was littered with a few lack-luster accents, the standout performances truly captured the spirit of the show.
    The dynamic duo of Justin Miles and Shawn Manny prove to be two of the strongest actors in the play. The two stand out as clearly seasoned actors while a few other cast members appeared quite stiff and uncomfortable on stage.
    Scott Howard and Sean Casey give the play fantastic humor as the drunken Trinculo and Stefano. But my personal favorite is Calaban, masterfully played by Zane Wind. He gives an incredibly heartfelt, though physically demanding, performance.
    The beginning of the play does overwhelm the audience with quite a bit of lengthy dialogue between two or three people, but, patron, fear not. The scenes soon move to a larger ensemble of the cast who skillfully play off one another.
    Overall, I was absolutely impressed with the performance. Even the set, though a bit simplistic at first glance, was detailed with several different levels that give the audience a visual variety that adds to the dialogue on stage as well as the complete theatrical experience.
    I may not be a theatre buff or an expert on Shakespeare, but I definitely recommend this play to anyone willing to commit to the performance as much as the actors do.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 16 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry