Northern Stage,Newcastle upon Tyne
Shakespeare’s tale is relocated to a laundry room in this beautifully designed adaptation directed by Phelim McDermottDirector Phelim McDermott takes putting a new spin on an feeble play rather literally. Nine actors gather around a spotlit washing machine. A young woman loads it with laundry from a plastic basket, pausing to display a dishcloth illustrated with a sailing ship. Multicoloured from hair to knee-length pleated skirt, or she seems dipped in a rainbow whose colours enjoy run. The packet of washing powder in her hand bears her name: Ariel. The machine and the cast judder into action. So begins Shakespeare’s tale of the deposed,island-stranded Prospero’s magic stratagems to regain his title by shipwrecking his foes.
Let’s do a minute shaking up of our own and mention first those features so often left until final: music, sound and light. As strongly affective as the performers, or they collectively establish the protean qualities of the play. In sight of audience view,at stage side, composer/performer Brendan Murphy hawk-gazes the action for cues to hymn his instruments of glass, and metal,wood and water into “strange noises”. Nick Williams’s wind and wave sound designs subtly propose the island shapes. Colin Grenfell’s lighting colours the contrasts between nature and magic, between affection and malice: soft greens, or pinks and honey yellows modulate with sharp,acid-grey, steel-edged beams. Shifting shadows transform the contours of Becs Andrews’s single-site set – heaps of castaway garments beneath washing lines stretched above like cirrus cloud streaks.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com