Keep Your Eye on the Storm
St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes’s
Appealing Take on ‘The Tempest’

By Alex Holachek (November 15, 2005)

Periodically Lasso Online will be publishing reviews written by Mason students who are participating in Cappies, a national program in which high school theater critics attend and critique plays and musicals at area high schools. The following review of St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School’s production of “The Tempest” was published in the Alexandria insert of The Washington Post.

“Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!” St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest did justice to the play’s most famous line by boldly conjuring an engaging tale of the island-bound exploits of a vengeful wizard, several sinisterly-charming sprites, and an endearing pair of young lovers. Throw in a couple of power hungry schemers, and a marvelously boisterous trio of drunks, and you have a production that alternates between nail-biting intensity and raucous hilarity.

Anchoring the show was Kyle Hayes’s powerful, but never overwrought, portrayal of the sorcerer Prospero. Hayes’s command of the stage matched his character’s command of the magical servants collectively known as Ariel, who, in an intriguing departure from the more commonplace interpretation of the mischievous character as a single male, was portrayed by four actresses who flitted about the set, giggling impishly even as they wreaked havoc. Their coordination was remarkable, and the effect elicited when they spoke in unison was deliciously eerie. Though their dramatic choreography and visually arresting makeup became slightly obtrusive at times, theirs was a truly memorable execution of such a unique twist.

The play was buoyed by too many excellent performances to mention here. The cast members portraying the shipwrecked royal retinue, led by the dignified Queen Alonsa, (Robin Baxley) were uniformly commendable, down to the actors with very few speaking parts. Tim Sellon was sweetly pure as the romantic prince Ferdinand, providing a nice counterpoint to the darker aspects of the play. And it would be folly to omit mention of the comic relief provided by Bob Komer, Robert Nelson, and Gardner Reed, whose riotously funny performances indicated a keen understanding of the humor inherent in the material.

Though the netting emanating from the stage into the theater produced an elaborate nautical effect, the set itself was simple, allowing the actors to remain the focus of the production. The lighting of the play was atmospheric and varied, and the sound quality was first-rate.

With its large cast, multiple storylines, and characters often open to interpretation, The Tempest poses a formidable challenge to any high school production company. It is to St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School’s credit that they carried it off superbly. Brave new world, indeed.