the tempest at the RSC

Moira+I went to Stratford again yesterday – this time to undertake some babysitting and enable Hannah to see the matinee performance of “Twelfth Night” at RSC (we’d been a couple of weeks earlier but, thus far, Hannah hadn’t seen any of the “shipwreck trilogy” plays in which Felix is appearing this season). She wasn’t disappointed!
However, the HUGE bonus for Moira+me was that we were given tickets for last night’s performance of “The Tempest” (front row, central, in the circle no less!)… and, once again, we were completely captivated by another electrifying production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Like “Twelfth Night”, David Farr and Jon Bausor were again the respective directors and designers.  Jonathan Slinger (Prospero) and Sandy Grierson (Ariel) were both magnificent, but so was the rest of the cast. I REALLY enjoyed Felix’s comic performance as Trinculo (a part he’d played with “Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory”, Bristol in 2010)… after the inevitably complicated scene-setting of the first part of the play, the audience were tangibly put at ease by the wonderful, confident (and very funny) banter between Trinculo and Stephano (played by Bruce MacKinnon).   
Once again, the magic of live theatre at its very best… stunning design, brilliant acting and directing (and the writer was pretty good too!).
Photo: a photograph of the stage taken from our seats in the Circle – I’m afraid it doesn’t at all do justice to the quality of the set design, but hey! Click on it to enlarge.