"'O brave new world, that has such people in it!"  Act V, Scene 1

Summer 1997

Christopher Jensen, Scenic and Lighting Design

Michael Keefe, Composer

Bill Ashdown, Costume Designer

Ralph Scotese, Properties Designer

Mark Mueller, Sound Designer

David Rice, Production Stage Manager, AEA

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Progress Newspapers

Windy City Times

Cast List

First Folio’s "The Tempest" is modest in production, yet sublime in performance, entwining magic and music within the lyrical lines of Shakespeare’s last great play.

Performed under the stars, the innate beauty of Mayslake serves as a luscious backdrop to Prospero’s mythical island and completes director Alison Vesely’s enchanting scenes.

First Folio Shakespeare Festival chose as its premier production possibly the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays and one of his shortest. The performance runs just under two hours and achieves Vesely’s goal of bringing singular works of Shakespeare to the western suburbs.

The story concerns Prospero, deposed and living in exile on a strange and romantic island with his daughter Miranda. Opening the play, he summons a storm to shipwreck a pack of traveling dignitaries, including the brother who stole his crown and a handsome and pampered prince, Ferdinand.

Of all the bard’s plays, "The Tempest" has the most intimate connection to music. In both adapting words to song and in the instrumental package of flute, pennywhistle, and guitar, composer Michael Keefe succeeds with aplomb filling the night with "some heavenly music," from the drinking songs of the lost mariners ("The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I…") to the tempting melodies of the spirit Ariel ("Full fathom five thy father lies").

The cast is wonderful, individually and in ensemble.

David Darlow as Prospero is clearly on a level above ordinary humans as he compels nature to his advantage. Raising his staff toward the heavens to a building roar of thunder, he is a lonely magician bitter with the loss of his dukedom.

He needs the intriguing and imaginative Ariel (Kathryn Ann Rosen) to carry out his spells. Flitting about stage with her light step and light-hearted voice, she’s a bewitching character and an enthusiastic servant who teaches her master the lessons of forgiveness and generosity.

As the monstrous "moon-calf" Caliban, Loring Rose is sufficiently base and gross as he slithers across stage cursing Prospero and lamenting his fate.

Foolhardy jesters Trinculo (Darryl Kent Clark) and Stephano (Anthony Gruppuso) never failed to elicit chuckles from the audience.

But, it is the young lovers Ferdinand (Charles Picard) and Miranda (Niki Sarich) who show by example that beauty is truth.

The beguiling Miranda moves to her appointed happiness with fairies and music about her; but she sees no fairies, sings no song, simply walks straight as the dictate of her heart directs, and in doing so outstrips all of Prospero’s magic.

If Hamlet and King Lear pose the greatest challenge to actors, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to designers, then surely The Tempest is the test of a director’s mettle. With its four distinct storylines, this sprawling tale of fancy and philosophy is often attempted but rarely fulfilled in its entirety. Add to this the uncertainty of outdoor presentation in an untested space and you have an idea of the hazardous undertaking attempted by the First Folio Shakespeare Festival, making their debut with this production.

Director and co-producer Alison C. Vesely appears also to have had this idea, making for a production with a far lower ratio of unsolved problems than any in recent memory. A veteran of Footsteps Theatre’s Classics Project division, Vesely has delved the content and spirit of the Bard’s every word to create a narrative that remains clear and coherent at every moment. (An exception is Loring Rose’s Caliban, whose delivery is limited—perhaps by the difficulties of being heard in the unamplified First Folio space—to angry shouting and anguished shouting.)

In the anchor role of the omnipotent Prospero, David Darlow resists the temptation to barnstorm, instead creating a weary patriarch whose age and wisdom might well invite forgiveness for his former adversaries and a desire for reconciliation.

In response to this characterization, Kathryn Ann Rosen’s Ariel jollies her employer with the mischievous affection of a pre-teen toward an indulgent uncle. Ferdinand and Miranda, as played by Charles Picard and Niki Sarich, are likewise recognizable to anyone familiar with adolescent sweethearts today. And Charles J. Likar’s vigorous delivery restores Gonzalo’s function to that of the raisonneur Shakespeare’s text proclaims him to be, rather than the Polonius-like dodderer so often invoked by young actors bent on easy invention (which impulse might account for Darryl Kent Clark’s choosing to equip the buffoonish Trinculo with mannerisms recalling Flip Wilson at this most abrasive).

Other frequently excised encumbrances are given fresh, new treatments under Vesely’s deft guidance. Michael Keefe’s original compositions render the potentially disruptive but structurally necessary songs eminently listenable. Designer Ralph Scotese’s harpy is suitably monstrous but also humorous, as are the wild dogs that chase the foolish clowns. And the usually soporific wedding-masque ("I must bestow upon this young couple some vanity of mine art" sighs the father of the bride. "It is my promise, and they expect it from me") is kept breezy and gossamer-light, played as it is in the ingenuous manner of a school recital, to thoroughly charming effect. Oh, and did I mention that the show’s running time is kept to a comfortable two hours?

The First Folio Festival sited on the grounds of the Oak Brook’s historic Peabody Estate may seem a long journey (take the Eisenhower of the Stevenson and be sure to wear insect repellant), but this auspicious beginning to what one hopes will become a long career makes the drive well worth the effort.