Walking into the Howard Theatre for the Downing Dramatic Society’s production of The Tempest, the audience was greeted by a pleasant ambiance: the sounds of a storm approaching and minimal decor. Throughout the production, the changes in coloured lighting also added to the ambiance, as did the live orchestra sitting next to the stage. Mary Offer's musical direction here accompanied the performance well, and particularly amplified the most intense scenes, such as the raging storm in which King Alonso and his court perish at the beginning of the play to find themselves on Prospero’s island.

Director Ell Aitken decided to keep the stage bare, using only a small number of props and no elements of set in order to leave centre stage to the work of the actors. The talents of some of the members of the cast must be highlighted: Kay Benson gave a strong portrayal of Prospero, emotional but not over-played, alongside Molly Gearen’s sincere, wallflower Miranda. While some of the emotional scenes that centred around these two main characters were dragging at some points, they were counterbalanced by the energetic trio of the islander Caliban, the drunkard Stefano, and Trinculo the jester. The performance of Ryan Morgan playing this latter stood out; Morgan embodied the court fool with bewitching energy, leaving us wishing we had seen more of him. Roma Ellis’s Ariel was also fascinatingly strong at moments, nicely contrasting Benson’s composed Prospero, with strong elements of physical theatre. Whilst Ariel’s singing occasionally missed its mark, this could well be put down to first performance nerves.

“Morgan embodied the court fool with bewitching energy, leaving us wishing we had seen more of him”

Based on the description of the production in publicity material, one could have hoped to look forward to a new reading of Shakespeare’s classic, as the production team seemed to emphasise the presence of BME and LGBT+ topics as issues highlighted by their interpretation of The Tempest. However, if you were going in with these expectations, you might be left disappointed. Whilst a majority of the cast consists of female actors, many of the male roles being played by women, the gender switches were not carried through. Aitken stuck to the original script, not changing the gender of any the characters nor any pronouns. The Ferdinand-Miranda couple which could have given place to the exciting depiction of a lesbian couple, as both characters were played by female actors, thus remained unexploited. Female actors portraying male characters were all dressed in (traditionally speaking) male clothing, which, alongside the insistence on sticking closely to the script, contributed to the failure to bring in LGBT+ issues to the fore in the way one might have wished.

Instances of the breaking of the 4th wall – for example in the case of Morgan’s Trinculo, who walked around in the audience and interacted with the audience members, as well as the emotional monologue given by Benson’s Prospero in the epilogue – were powerful moments that hinted at the director’s incorporation of elements of the Brechtian Epic Theatre. Similarly strong were the use of certain props, such as the covering of the ensemble by a blue sheet, symbolising that they had been momentarily swallowed by the sea. Ariel’s singing could just as well have added to this Brechtian narrative, an approach which would have given place to the highlighting of contemporary issues that Aitken seemed to be wanting to bring in to this staging of The Tempest.

Whilst some of the members of the cast gave great performances, the lack of detail on Aitken’s part to follow through on their conceptual ideas meant that this production did not succeed in bringing as much innovation to Shakespeare’s The Tempest as it had potential to do. All in all this production provided the audience with a relaxed evening on a magical island, propelled by instances of outstanding acting and moments of tension supported by the orchestra.