NORTHERN Broadsides picked The Tempest for this spring's tour partly to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade.
The resonance is not laboured, political points on our colonial past are not scored, but ripples spread across the water in Prospero's relationship with both the abused monster Caliban and the freedom-craving Ariel, here played by three black women (Nicola Gardner, Simone Saunders, Belinda Everett), who represent different facets of this shape-shifting sprite.
Director Barrie Rutter quails at the convention of Shakespeare's swansong play being very dark in hue. Out goes black thunder and rough magic; in comes the blues and yellows of Lis Evans's simple island set with its circular rostrum and ship's mast, and the blues and jazz of Conrad Nelson's score of songs and instrumentals, serenades and shanties, performed on interchangeable instruments by Rutter's cast of northern actor-musicians.
After an over-elaborate opening, where the music falls short of replicating the storm, Rutter's wronged duke Prospero sets the tone. His course may be set on revenge, but he is not burning with ire; his coat is white, not a blaze of angry colour. His eyes are full of brightness, pride and love for his 15-year-old daughter (Sarah Cattle, whose voice, demeanour and clothes are those of a young girl until her wedding day has her in full bloom).
Rutter's sanguine rather than bookish Prospero knows his path and knows his powers are fading too. It is as if the internal tempest already has passed its peak, and so his final speech of forgiveness and preparation for the future takes on a radiant light, free of the bonds of despair.
Prospero talks of "art to enchant", and Northern Broadsides's ruddy yet intelligent productions do exactly that in a brisk two hours. Difficult and mysterious play The Tempest may be, but Rutter decided to "rock'n'roll with it", and he duly brings out each facet, from young love to enslavement, musicality to broad comedy.
Michael Hugo's spindly, furry-bodied Caliban may have more of the look of an Ariel or Puck, but his drunken scenes with Nelson's camp Scouse Trinculo and Simon Holland Roberts's fellow Liverpudlian butler Stephano kick up a wonderful comic storm, gay undertones and all.
The Tempest, Northern Broadsides/New Vic Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until April 14; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 8 to 12. Box office: Leeds, 0113 213 7700; Scarborough, 01723 370541.
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