SHOW INFORMATION: Through July 13. The Tempest will be performed on: June 20, 28, 29, July 4, 5, 11 and 13. Fri – Sat at 8PM, Sundays and July 4 at 5PM. Tickets are$25, general, $22 Seniors, all children free. Tickets: 866.811.4111 or www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com. Information: 410.313.8874
◊◊ 1/2 out of five. 2 hours, 20 minutes, including intermission.
Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that even though he was a master, William Shakespeare was not hitting a home run with every play he wrote. I think critics, me included, are often reluctant to criticize the Bard. But I must in this case. The Tempest, which opened this past weekend at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's annual "in the Ruins" Repertory (The Comedy of Errors, not reviewed here, is the other play this season) is one that I take great issue with. First, it is one of those plays in the canon that is not really a comedy, definitely not a history, and not a tragedy. True, it has its moments, but the chief problem with the play is that about 85% of it is exposition, where the characters tell us of astonishing events that have happened in the past or just offstage before we are told about it. And with a two hour plus running time, that is an awful lot of listening and imagining, while having very little to look at. The vast majority of the problems with this production lay squarely at old William's feet.
The rest of the problems, oddly enough, come from the one member of the CSC that has, in my opinion been batting a thousand over the past three years. That person is director of The Tempest, Patrick Kilpatrick. It literally shocks me to have anything negative to say about one of this area's finest talents onstage or off. And if anyone who directs the classics locally could overcome the blah script, it would be Mr. Kilpatrick. How disappointing then to report that, aside from a fantastic opening scene in which we see Prospero and his spirit sidekick, Ariel, create a storm that shipwrecks several boatloads of people, the rest of this play is almost uniformly static. Long passages of monologues and dialogues are done center stage with little or no blocking. What movement there is seems mostly of the walk across the stage and exit variety. To be completely fair, as I sat watching, I couldn't think of a better way to do it for the most part, either.
Given the magical element (there are a band spirits and a half human creature among the cast) that pervades the story, there is very little in the way of stage magic created. In fact, that band of spirits, who move silently among the human visitors to this Mediterranean isle, becomes increasingly cliché and decreasingly interesting as the evening rolls on. Most of the time, Mr. Kilpatrick has them enter as one regimented group from one side or the other, and they, as a pack, move across the stage staring at the humans and the audience with looks that suggest wax figures more than interest, only to exit on the other side. I suppose their presence is meant to highlight some meaningful passages, but if that is the case it wholly ineffective. On the occasions where they actually interact with the humans they are marginally more interesting, but they aren't nearly as mysterious or thought-provoking as they appear to think they are.
Technically, the show is also remarkably bland. Perhaps as the production photos for The Comedy of Errors suggest, the lion's share of budget went to that play. Save for a rock that gets shoved around the stage once in awhile, and an oversized box that takes up a good portion of the upstage space, there is not a whole lot to look at on Dave Eske's set. The same can be said of his lighting, though a flourish of festive color at the end of Act One elicits a well-deserved "ahh!" from the audience. Master costume designer Kristina Lambdin is also far less than at her best here, though her period costumes offer an interesting nod to the less fortunate shipwreck victims of the Titanic. Her tunic-like gauzy outfits for the spirits are as interesting as they are – if you find beige gauze cut into strips interesting. Ian Gallanar's sound design is, however, spot on – stormy, magical and mystical, at least when you can hear it. More often than not, the sound is so low, you start to wonder if the characters (and we) are imagining all the sounds described in the tedious script. 
