THE TEMPEST (Cream-Faced Loons/Scram Collective)*****

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ44XNvHtBk&list=PLp9ljWlQivIObncsuojJYLrGHvsp3Ypk0

Available until: Unknown

I find Shakespeare plays quite difficult because I’m not as clever as the other bloggers but I really enjoyed this performance of The Tempest. It was really fun and it was very easy to understand who the characters were and what was going on. I think it will help me to understand other productions of The Tempest better in the future too.

It was performed by two companies, Cream-Faced Loons and Scram Collective who have performed The Comedy of Errors together too. That is also a very good production and I liked the Cream-Faced Loons’ Lear (based on King Lear but set in the modern COVID world) too.

This production focuses on the comedy and it might not be as deep as some other productions but I think there are lots of relevant ways to put on a play and I think it is really good that companies are putting them on in different ways. But I think light productions can teach you a lot about the plays and about the world and the acting standard is just as high. Some people find comedy harder to act than drama. The timing has to be perfect and it can be harder for people to get to know the characters if you only get to know them on a surface level. But I think with the very best comedies you can see underneath the comedy level to who they are and that is something I really felt with this production.

Most of the play was on Zoom but there were some shots of outdoors and there was a boat and a rubber duck. I showed the rubber duck to Lottie because she loves ducks and it made her very happy. She is only six so I don’t think she’s big enough for the full play yet (even Megan didn’t start Shakespeare till she was eight) but I think when Lottie is older I will watch this production with her if it is still online. I think she will like the story and the characters and she is already interested in language and rhymes.

But this is not just a production for new Shakespeare fans. Our group of bloggers includes an English graduate and a professional actor and a few people who have seen all Shakespeare’s plays and they all thought it was brilliant too.

This production of The Tempest was filmed over 5 days with one act a day. There is a ‘previously on The Tempest’ at the start of each video so you can watch it over several days but it’s also good if you watch it all on one day. It is only about 1 hour and 40 minutes. At the end of each part Abey Bradbury (who is the Cream-Faced Loons director) talks to us and she is really nice and funny. The Scram Collective director is Alex Newport. The two companies and the two directors work really well together.

The cast is really good. Lucy Blake is quite a gentle Prospero but you still don’t want to make her mad. Alex Newport is less spooky than a lot of Ariels but I really like him and he has a nice singing voice too. I like Georgia Andrews as Miranda because she is like a teenager today. She doesn’t like it when her dad tells her what to do and when she sees Ferdinand she looks really happy and excited the way Imogen looks when she sees a boy she likes. Ellen Kruger as Caliban is like a teenager too but he is more like a rebel. He is not nearly as likeable as Miranda but he is funny and it is sweet how much he likes Stephano.

Mohit Mathur is very good as Ferdinand too. He looks really confused by all the surprising people he keeps meeting and I don’t think he’s always completely sure what is going on. I really like hs physical acting. I think he is really inventive at responding to what the other characters are saying and what is going on around him. Michelle Kelly who plays Antonio is also really good at this.

The rest of the cast includes Jeff King who does really good characterisation as Alonso, and Daniel Crisostomu who makes the language sound really good. Abey Bradbury plays the Boatswain and Iris. Iris has her own version of Shakespeare’s lines and she sounds like a TV presenter. She’s very funny.