BareStage provides pure entertainment with ‘The Tempest’

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Already shivering from the preliminary whispers and chanting, we were sufficiently startled when a clap of thunder started BareStage’s production of “The Tempest” Friday evening. More accurately, the sea nymph Ariel started the show with a pitchy rendition of “Sweet Dreams.”

It has been said that this “Tempest,” under the direction of Berkeley senior Greg Zoumaras, strays considerably from the Shakespearean play. We agree. Much of the audience chatted animatedly during the intermission, some about how they’d never read the original script. For Zoumaras, his 17-man cast, and a crew of nearly the same size, English 117 (the Shakespeare class) was not a prerequisite.

It was pure joy to watch, and thus Friday evening was actually more Shakespearean than what we were told—it was tumultuous entertainment, summed up best by the full cast curtain call dance number.

The addition of modern pop music to the script was fun, but gaudy at times; again, the harmonies were frequently off-key and the beginning of choruses hesitant and uncertain. We found the Ariels (there were six) multi-talented when summoned to the stage by Prospera with guitars and tambourines.

One thing Zoumaras applied liberally was audience engagement: drunkards Trinculo (Hanah Chang), Stefano (Savanah Frisk), and the monstrous Caliban (Aidan Olsen) flew through the audience, pursued by the Ariels; at one point, during the wedding, the audience was lured onstage by the sea spirits for a full-tilt dance party that overflowed into the aisles, all this in addition to a large number of cast entries and exits through the crowd.

Titus Ting, as Ferdinand, was an absolute caricature—in ways both good and bad—of the chivalrous prince; Lana Cosic, as Miranda, was very much the passive, naïve island princess. What Cosic and the original script could not provide in terms of female presence, the change of gender exhibited by three lead roles in Zoumaras’ version – Prospero to Prospera, Alonso to Alonsa, and Antonio to Antonia – did. Tiana Randall-Quant, as Prospera, reigned over the island and an ingeniously designed thundersheet at the side of the stage that evening, omnipresent and ever-powerful.

The makeup was dramatic, the costuming a mixed bag, and the set design left something to be desired. Alonsa’s entourage fell flat most of the time. But the brief lulls and the minute areas of improvement didn’t discourage viewers from enjoying the show, as BareStage nails student theater and entertainment yet again.

Freshman Aidan Olsen’s channeling of Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, as Caliban, alone is enough to catch the show.

“The Tempest” will be showing at the Cesar Chavez Center until November 23. If you enjoyed the show, leave your remarks below and give BareStage some love on Facebook and Twitter.