Tempest
by William Shakespeare

SHAKESPEARE received a bit of a shake-up in the latest adaptation of Mixed Salad’s The Tempest.

While remaining true to the original script, the cast of 13 managed to highlight current themes such as drugs, alcohol abuse and cougar antics (modern women going after younger men).

The drama/comedy/romance centres around three groups of people on an island, dealing with such human weaknesses as lust and revenge.

Director Sally Putnam added a few quirky modern touches to the 17th century script.

For example, her sometimes hilarious drunken cougars Trinny (Bronwyn Ruciak) and Suzanna (Nicole Rutty).
The talented cast barely missed a beat, delivering their wordy lines almost seamlessly.

Standout performer of the evening was Caliban (Dave Simms), a very physical actor, who portrayed Prospero’s odd-job man as a fidgeting fool.

Star Theatre’s stage was transformed into a deserted island, with tonnes of sand, a boardwalk and dinghy lots of fun.

Costumes were plain but effective.

The cast was decked out in what looked like op shop cast offs, fitting for such cast-aways.

Natalie de Nadai, 3 June 2010

The opening to this version of Tempest takes place before the first flash of strobe lighting and long-delayed crack of thunder.

Director Sally Putnam visited Bali last year and her travels got her thinking about interpreting Tempest. The original was set somewhere in the 'New World'. Why not make that new world look a lot like Bali?

A shipwrecked mixed bag of royals, schemers and hangers-on are pushed and prodded by the mysterious, almost-omniscient Prospero (Peter Davies).

This updated Prospero runs the best nightclub on the island, spying on everyone with modern technology and crafting moods with his skill in light and sound. Today's audiences will find the first half overloaded with entrances–as grand as many of them are.

Notable among these are: Ferdinand (Oliver de Rohan) and Stephano (Todd Clappis) with his gaggle of girls, Trinny (Bronwyn Ruciak) and Suzanna (Nicole Rutty).

The most outstanding entrance, however, is Dave Simms as Caliban (although this is no surprise to those who have seen him perform before, eg as Hector in The History Boys). It's ambitious to update Shakespeare.

You face the ire of the traditionalists–and the impatience of audiences used to having the central conflicts revealed quickly so the time can be spent resolving them. You'll enjoy the show more if you read a program and before the theatre doors open.

Daniel G Taylor, 28 May 2010

Mixed Salad Productions have quickly established a reputation for quality work, winning the Adelaide Critics Circle award in 2009 for their two productions, The History Boys and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

Their latest production, an edited, reworked and updated version of Shakespeare’s romantic tragicomedy, The Tempest, looks set to generate more praise.

Written in 1610-1611 it was Shakespeare’s last complete play, featuring magic and supernatural beings, employed to highlight very human emotions and machinations. Director, Sally Putnam, has done a little bit of gender reassignment on some of the characters, and deleted the numerous spirits, without destroying any of the Bard’s original intent.

The play has a back story to it. Twelve years before the play opens the magician, Prospero was cast adrift in a boat with his three year old daughter, Miranda, eventually coming ashore on a remote island. His brother, Antonio, assisted by Alonso, the King of Naples, was responsible for this and, having removed Prospero, usurped his position as Duke of Milan. Gonzalo, a woman in this version, renamed Gonzala, the King’s counsellor, assisted Prospero by putting the most important of his books, along with food and water, into the boat beforehand. When he first arrived on the island, Prospero freed Ariel from his (now her) imprisonment in a tree by the witch Sycorax, who had died prior to Prospero’s arrival, and takes Caliban, the deformed son of Sycorax, as a servant.

Prospero now looks set to have his revenge, as Antonio, Alonso, Gonzala, Alonso’s brother, Sebastian, changed here to his sister, Sabina, his son, Ferdinand and a few others are travelling on a ship close to the island, returning from the wedding of Alonso’s daughter, Claribel, to the King of Tunis. Prospero, with the aid of Ariel, conjures up a storm that shipwrecks them on the island and separates them into several groups at the same time. Alonso, finding that Ferdinand is not with his group, fears that he is dead.

This is where the story begins, with three main tales running through the play. Ferdinand meets and falls in love with Miranda, Caliban attempts to enlist the aid of the drunken steward, Stephano, and the equally intoxicated Trinculo, here reworked as Trinny, with this production adding a third character, Suzanna, asking them to kill Prospero, and Antonio and Sabina plot to kill Alonso and Gonzala to make Sabina the new ruler.

Peter Davies gives a strong performance as Prospero, controlling the proceedings and keeping an unseen eye on all that happens. Along with strength, Davies brings a quiet dignity to the role showing us the conflict between Prospero’s better nature and his desire for revenge. This is a nicely balanced performance. Carla Hardie’s Miranda is a carefully considered study in naivety born of youthful innocence, coupled with all of the excitement of a child becoming a woman and discovering new needs and emotions.

On the darker side Dave Simms gives his Caliban a disgusting veneer to a inwardly malevolent creature with no redeeming features, yet still manages to generate plenty of humour. Sharon Malujlo brings a wonderfully fey quality to the role of Ariel, ideally suited to the character, giving the impression that she is half in our world and half in another, more secret and magical place at the same time. Oliver de Rohan is the love-struck Ferdinand, clearly having plenty of fun with the role in a convincing portrayal.

Todd Clappis, Bronwyn Ruciak and Nicole Rutty, as the inebriated trio, Stephano, Trinny and Suzanna, together add masses of comic relief. Geoff Dawes, as Antonio, Jamie Wright, as Alonso and Fiona Lardner, as Sabina, all offer fine performances as the baddies of the piece, with some tender emotions displayed by Lesley Reed in the role of Gonzala, while Rosemary Jackson acts as a silent Greek chorus, looking on and commenting via gesture and facial expression.

The set is extremely impressive, with excellent lighting from Nathan Smith and, aside from a few opening night nerves, everything went like clockwork. This company has done it again, with a high quality production that is sure to win plenty of praise, but be quick to catch it, as it only has a short run.

Barry Lenny, 29 May 2010

The challenge of presenting Shakespeare is to divine the essential premise of the text and to then find a way of delivering that message in a clear and entertaining way.

Frequently this is done by setting Shakespeare in a modern or different context. To do this successfully requires a detailed understanding of all the nuances of the play and a broad vision flexible enough to ensure the re-imagining sits easily within the original text.

In Mixed Salad’s production of Shakespeare’s “Tempest”, Prospero’s island has been re-imagined as a party island - part Ibiza, part Bali - and Prospero is an all-seeing overlord: a Mr Kurtz in thongs, perhaps. But this Prospero’s airy charms take the form of a celestial DJ, a manipulative drug-dealer and a Machiavellian schemer. With closed-circuit cameras, spinning turn-tables and with the aid of a few bags of speed and his sprite Ariel, he menaces and plots.

Director Sally Putnam’s setting is partially successful. When it works, the play hums beautifully and is a pleasure to watch. The music and sound design blend the action well and are wonderfully imaginative – “Full Fathom Five” as a dance track is a highlight. Prospero’s isolation from society is well translated, and his fractured love for his daughter Miranda is convincing. The comic subplot featuring Caliban and Stephano, Trinnny (originally Trinculo) and Suzanna (a character created by Putnam from Trinculo’s lines) is particularly good. The drunk and dishevelled trio prance about the stage as the loud, coarse and vulgar tourists we all avoid (and pretend we are not). Putnam’s setting and mood touch on colonisation and globalisation subtly, and these notions add depth to the production. But the party island theme does not stretch to the political intrigue and revenge which is so central to Prospero’s plan. This narrative seems dislocated and as if it is part of another play. The disjointed story saps energy from the production. This is a conceptual failure, rather than one of performance.

Some of the performances, too, suffer from the unwieldy setting. Peter Davies as Prospero seems distant and does not have the whiff of madness and desire that make Prospero such a compelling character. He is often trapped at the back of the stage, apparently scanning his CCTV. But his interaction with Miranda is well-judged, gentle but uneasy with her developing maturity. It is a pity that Davies is constrained; his “Ye Elves of Hills” speech (the start of which seemed to be edited) is a beautiful moment of confusion, regret and power surrendered.

Dave Simms stands out as Caliban, a palsied, gnarled, drug-wracked troll, who has stayed too long and snorted too much. Beaten and bent on revenge, Simms makes sense of Putnam’s setting and concept and is the most completely realised character. It helps that Simms has Todd Clappis, a drunken and chesty Stephano, and the two MILFish slappers Trinny and Suzanna (Bronwyn Ruciak and Nicole Rutty) in many of his scenes. This quartet makes the most of the inherent silliness of their roles. Oliver de Rohan is wide-eyed and delightfully gormless as Ferdinand, Jamie Wright finds moments of real gravitas as the grieving father Alonso, and Lesley Reed (Gonzala) shows a gift for clarity and textual understanding. Generally, Putnam’s well-cast ensemble is energetic and precise.

The set, a beachside cabana and a sandy beach, fit Putnam’s concept well, but there is too much action on the beach, which is the floor of the theatre. Some of the audience will miss the detail of these scenes – sit up higher if you can. The lighting is pedestrian and functional. A more complex design could have given much more depth and delineated the different narrative threads much better.

Although the concept is at times ill-fitting, this is an enjoyable “Tempest”.

John Wells, 31 May 2010

Featuring six tonnes of sand, rapped Songs of Ariel, bottles, bronzed bodies and a Caliban from the bottom of the black lagoon, Mixed Salad's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest is a terrific take on this much loved classic.

Director Sally Putnam has amassed a cast of 13, led in a commanding performance by Peter Davies, whose Prospero is a mature and complex character. Sharon Malujlo gives Ariel spells to spare, a lovely, light performance that blends the wisdom of the ages with child-like glee.

Prospero and Ariel are kept busy interfering in the many plots before them There's Prospero's treacherous brother Antonio and his party, led by the King of Naples (noble account by Jamie Wright) and a successfully re-gendered Gonzala (Lesley Reed, very fine).

Then there's Oliver de Rohan, a touchingly gormless Ferdinand, love-struck at the first sight of Prospero's Miranda (Carla Hardie, deep sign from the audience).

Best, or worst, the monstrous Caliban, a wildly funny performance by Dave Simms, and his scheming with wannabe lothario Stephano (a sustained effort by Todd Clappis).

Peter Burdon, 29 May 2010