A review of The Tempest with Kenneth Branagh (spoilers!)
I had the amazing good fortune to have front row seats for the previews of the Tempest in Stratford Upon Avon on Friday night and wanted to share my thoughts here. If you are going to see it I'd actually recommend skipping this review as there are some very cool things in the production which are best experienced as surprises.
In short: the production was the best I've seen in nearly 10 years of going regularly to RSC productions. It was inventive, the reading was subversive, and Kenneth Branagh outdid himself. I went expecting a Kenneth Branagh who would command all the attention all the time. I always think his entrance in Chamber of Secrets as Guilderoy Lockheart is peak him: 'Can you all see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent.' But here he cleverly used that and then subverted it at the end, showing his full range. Meanwhile, the production takes a very subversive and non-standard reading of the play. If you are a traditionalist, that you think Shakespeare could only ever be upholding the values of his time, this is not the production for you. I love non-traditional readings of Shakespeare, so found this brilliant. My husband said it was like the directors had read the play but not seen any interpretations ever and just did their own thing.
The production uses stylised Jacobean era costuming: doublets, and in Miranda's wedding scene she wears a dress with a ruff. Prospero's costume is a very cool purple robe with magic symbols all over it, and the 'book' he references in the play is constantly on stage--either with him or on a stool on the corner of the stage. They very much use both of these things as Checkhov's guns.
They scrapped scene 1 with the Botswain and instead showed it, with Prospero 'conducting' the storm with a baton from the corner of the stage and big lights, big sounds, a tilting central bit. The play very much leaned into the magic of everything. When Prospero put Miranda to sleep in scene 2 they did a cool bit of stage effects where he put her shawl over her as a blanket and then she seemed to levitate. Although I was in the front row, I couldn't see what was holding her up. Meanwhile Ariel was in a flying harness literally the entire play. When she wasn't performing, she was standing on the side of the stage, and at one point was singing upside down. It was such a physical feat on Amara Okereke's part, and she did the role beautifully.
The production leaned in very hard to the Post-Colonial reading of the play: Ariel, Caliban, and the spirits were all played by Black actors, and everyone else was white. When Ferdinand first meets Miranda, he does the speaking very loud and slow with over obvious hand gestures thing that people do when they're trying to speak to someone who they think doesn't understand them. Caliban is just a regular guy with absolutely nothing scary about him, which underscores the theme. This leads to a subversive reading at the end. I loved this production for starting with an interesting thing at the start and then really paying it out at the end of the show--they did this throughout.
Overall, the production takes a very optimistic view of everyone. Caliban is angry, but not evil, and they played it more that he was in love with/ had a crush on Miranda than wanted to use her. Ashley Zhangazha also played Caliban as clever, that he sees the idiocy of Trinculo and Stefano and uses them to plot to overthrow Prospero rather than them stunning him. Signficantly, when they give him alcohol, he spits it out. And when he gives the 'Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises' speech, he actually cried and it was very moving. In things coming full circle that was the speech Kenneth Branagh read out in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
Kenneth Branagh's take on Prospero is similarly gentle. I have seen Prosperos tower with anger and use the full volume of their voice. While Branagh's Prospero gets impatient with Miranda in 1.2 and doesn't let her speak, he doesn't get angry. Even with Ariel, he is stern and selfish but not angry. There are also productions which show many chinks in Prospero's armour of knowledge--this did the opposite. In this production, he shows Ariel a projected picture of Ferdinand (throughout he can manipulate the environment with a wave or gesture of his staff, a conductors baton). This builds the idea that he is not at all suspicious of Ferdinand, but setting him up as a match for Miranda. He is onstage with them unseen throughout their courtship, and again, when he imprisons Ferdinand doesn't handle him roughly. I got the sense it was to test both of them and keep Ferdinand there. He watches over their marriage as a tender father giving his daughter away, and breaks up the ceremony when he realises they're about to consummate their marriage and this is the part he shouldn't see. His forgiveness of Antonio is incredibly touching, and this is interestingly when Branagh's acting really shone through. I expected and loved the bluster and big gestures at the start; he is always entertaining to watch chewing scenery. But it was the forgiveness in Act 5, opening his arms to his brother that struck me and brought tears to my eyes that stayed until the end. He surrenders his magic coat and puts on a golden one to retake the duchy of Milan. Then he rips the book apart (interestingly from where I sat I could see the pages and they were mock music staves which emphasised the role of music throughout the play) and breaks his conductor's staff. And he does it so beautifully, just standing stage centre and snapping it in two as if it were no big thing. Again, a really breathtaking moment.
The play ends then with Prospero giving Ariel freedom. At that point, Ariel lands on stage and Branagh unlatches the harness and Ariel stands unsteadily on her own two feet for the first time. Trinculo and Stefano are sent back to the ship and Caliban *also* inherits the isle, which is a gesture that has so many layers I could write an essay about that alone. THEN the curtains and trappings of the stage are lifted and we can see all the way to the back wall of the stage, leaning into a reading of Shakespeare as Prospero, the magic playwright who can create worlds, determine revenge or forgiveness, have people fall in love. But also a playwright at the end of his career, for Miranda says 'O brave new world that has such people in't' and Prospero says ''Tis new to thee'. It's as though Prospero/ Shakespeare is giving this world of imagination to the next generation, and adds another layer onto the ending.
The more this cooks in my brain the more amazing the production is, and I really hope they choose to do a recording of it because it should be available to everyone. Would love to hear others' takes.