Thursday, 28 February 2008.
OK, give them credit for reexamining Shakespeare's The Tempest from an Islamic perspective. Interesting enough. Asian company Tara Arts has brought its radical new production to the Rose Theatre in Kingston, but I'm not sure it ought to have left the rehearsal hall.
Director Jatinder Verma has obviously put a lot of thought into this production, but what she gives us is not a considered result. Instead, she's experimented with a sparse -- underwhelming -- set and dangling ropes that, misused, make up the bulk of the properties.
Some of the cast, including Robert Mountford as Prospero, shine in parts, but much of the company seems out of the loop, especially Caroline Kilpatrick as the fairy Ariel.
This Tempest, innately a play plagued by ambivalence and rocky patches, needs a unity of vision that it lacks in its current inception. Hopefully as the production tours it will improve, but I wouldn't hold out hope.
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