Tempest, The

Synopsis: A video recording, using a single, fixed camera of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1993 production of The Tempest. Directed by Sam Mendes with Alec McCowen as Prospero and Simon Russell Beale as Ariel.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 13 Jan 1994
Duration: 150 mins

General: "All the island’s a stage from the outset here, with Ariel springing out of a wicker prop basket and unleashing the tempest with a swing of a storm lantern. People are carted on and off in this conveyance, or emerge like actors from behind a Magritte-like screen that’s painted in the same fleecy pattern as the cloudscape behind. Like the giant Pollocks toy theatre that houses the masque, its all good self-reverential fun." Paul Taylor, The Independent (15 July 1994)
History: Press night 11 August 1993
Stills: Stills from, and design notes on, the production are available on the Arts and Humanities Performing Arts Data Service (AHDS) at http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/designing-shakespeare.htm
Reviews: Jackson, Russell Shakespeare Quarterly (1996), pp 319-26 (review article).

Name: Royal Shakespeare Company
Web: https://www.rsc.org.uk External site opens in new window
Address: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
CV37 6BB