The Tempest

'The Tempest' is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It contains one of his most imaginative settings, which can be truly wondrous with the right budget. Again, Shakespeare's mastery of text is evident throughout with many memorable, iconic in some cases, lines, speeches and scenes. And the characters are not easy to forget, with the play boasting two of for me Shakespeare's greatest characters in Prospero and Caliban.

BBC's Television Shakespeare productions running between 1978 and 1985 is mostly most worthwhile and really fascinating, for the opportunity to see every one of Shakespeare's plays performed as one project the BBC Television Shakespeare series is a must. Not all the productions are great, but regardless of any misgivings with production values or stage direction it is great to see so many talented actors (some experienced in Shakespeare and some in early roles), seeing all of Shakespeare's work as one big project and Shakespeare adapted and performed relatively faithfully. The series' production of 'The Tempest' is a decent one with many great merits, but to me it fell short and somewhat disappointing, considering that this was one of the productions that should have been great.

It primarily suffers from looking woefully under-budgeted, as unfair as it sounds one does not at all get a sense of the wondrous place described in the text. It just looked too drab and sparse.

Some of the sound quality can be an issue, particularly at the start where the sound effects are far too loud and render the dialogue and action incomprehensible. Actually found the acting to be fine on the most part, but do agree with those who found David Dixon too mannered as Ariel.

However, Shakespeare's writing is out of this world and has a lot of impact throughout. Despite the low budget, there are some nice visual touches, and the understated camera work complements well here, and mostly a good job is done with the stage directing. It's coherent, is done in good taste and the committed performances and nice detail to the character relationships stop it from being static. The magic may be missing here, but the humour, emotion, suspense and romance are not. The music during the extended masque towards the end is really quite lovely.

Dixon aside, the acting is fine. The standouts being Michael Hordern's powerful, noble and moving Prospero with plenty of authority and Warren Clarke managing a perfect balance of monstrous and sympathetic as Caliban. Nigel Hawthorne also stands out, he (and Andrew Sachs) being vastly entertaining without thankfully overdoing the clownishness. His and Sachs' characters are problematic in how easy it is for the actors to do that. Christopher and Pippa Guard are appealing, not as strong as Hordern, Clarke and Hawthorne, but in all fairness their roles are not as meaty. Derek Godfrey sinks his teeth into Antonio.

Concluding, decent production of 'The Tempest' albeit not a great one. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Not sure what to make of the negative comments here, but the contributors were perhaps brought up on Star Wars special effects and feel that they were sorely misused with this poor representation of the cinematic magic put forth therein. Please be assured that this taping of a stage play is very good and compared to what it might have been at the Globe is quite magical with invisibility and storms at sea well represented.

But WONDERFULLY represented are the words of the play and the art of the actors far surpass that of the usual movie fare. The amazing Michael Hordern (who also plays Capulet in the BBC's R&J) is the perfect Prospero, and from his performance I glean most enjoyment. Miranda leave something to be desired in the acting, but nothing in the appearance.

The entire play is herein represented. Most characters are well, if not wonderfully enacted. I further disagree about Caliban who captures very well the fine line between beast and man, touching on the viewers' pity, ire and loathing at various times. Do we really need to judge hair styles when watching this play on video? Are we truly a people best represented by "People" magazine? Judge for yourself if you are lucky enough to borrow or own this DVD, or fortunate enough to have seen the BBC presentation originally. This is Excellent Shakespeare, do not be misled.

The production values are weak, the handling of the spirits is laughable, the wedding masque is tedious, and Ferdinand's hairstyle seems, to our current sense of fashion, ludicrous. BUT this television of Shakespeare's play is to be prized for some excellent performances, most notably Michael Hordern's restrained, intelligent, compassionate and emotionally profound performance as Prospero. Listen to him handle the difficult exposition in Act I, watch how he gives his approval to his daughter's marriage, how he releases Ariel, and the wonderful transition he makes into the final epilogue. There are some fine performances here--you just have to look past some unfortunate design and directorial choices.

Shakespeare's TEMPEST is magical, romantic, and full of delight. But the center of the play is the dynamic between Prospero, the wise old wizard, and his innocent but adventurous daughter Miranda.

Pippa Guard is PERFECT as Miranda. She captures all of Miranda's sweetness and gentleness while adding courage and spirit and passion and even daring to the surface obedience she always displays. Watch the famous scene where Prospero talks on and on about his past and his great gifts and his magical plans to bring them home. At the end of his long-winded speech, he prevents Miranda from asking any further questions by waving his magic wand and sending her to sleep! It's a scene that often makes modern audiences groan aloud. But Pippa Guard has the most extraordinary gift for putting a world of passion and deep feeling into her face as she opens her mouth to protest. Her magnificent spirit is fully displayed, even though she has no verbal comeback to Prospero's manipulative magic. Even the surprised, confused, and then suddenly very sleepy look on her face cannot conceal her growing strength and her rebellious desire to know more.

Pippa Guard is the model Shakespearean actress -- rendering the language beautifully and adding a world of meaning with just a single look or a glance.

Pippa Guard Rocks!

The Tempest is often considered to be Shakespeare's last major play. Therefore it is easy to see why many think Prospero, the leading character, is a sort of picture of Shakespeare on the eve of his retirement; Prospero retires to Milan as Shakespeare did to Stratford and put away his magic staff as Shakespeare did his pen.

Michael Hordern was usually good as Prospero (some unfortunate line readings do not detract too much from the over-all effect.), the wizard of the island which was possibly Shakespeare's representation of the New World, then being explored. (Miranda even famously exclaims, with Aldous Huxley, "O brave new world, that has such people in't".)

David Dixon was the spirit Ariel and, he "almost has on" a sort of thong like the other spirits (dancers) that bring and then deliberately remove a magical meal before anyone has a chance to consume it. Alas, Mr. Dixon isn't that convincing as an actor here; too often he merely throws his lines out in a thoughtless manner. Both he and these other spirits seem more campy than sincere, more softcore gay porn than Shakespeare.

I'm not suggesting that other productions may not have similar displays of near-nudity which W.S. himself might well have appreciated once he got over his initial shock, but a bit more dignity might also have been in order. The "masque" towards the end was both more extended (though slightly abridged in this version.) and better done in my opinion and the music by Joseph Horovitz in this section was quite good.

Pippa and Christopher Guard were good as the young lovers Miranda and Ferdinand but they are cousins in real life and not siblings as someone else stated. The other characters were also well done including Nigel Hawthorne as the drunk Stephano and Warren Clarke as Caliban.

The opening ship scene was almost totally inaudible with the actors' lines overpowered by the sounds of the storm. But I thought that the scenery was perfectly adequate for the purpose of this TV production.