Review: THE TEMPEST, Palmetto Center, Northwest Vista College

Director Tim Hedgepeth takes a lot of liberties with Shakespeare's The Tempest and the most entertaining aspects of his production are when he is most irreverent in his approach - as when he introduces line dancing and drag. I felt the least successful aspects of the show were when he cleaved more to traditional representations of this convoluted tale, as represented in the characterization of Prospero and Caliban.

Dorian Arriaga, as Caliban, showed great acting chops in a bravura performance loaded with as much sturm und drang as a raging tempest, but it might have been more entertaining if he had injected it with more of the kind of humor displayed by Keith Raggette as Trinculo and Maverick Saenz as Stephano, whose performances were reminiscent of Chico and Harpo Marx. They were by far the most entertaining characters in this production and left me feeling that there was more humor and entertainment to be mined from this play if Tim Hedgepeth had taken even more liberties and been more irreverent with it.

As Ariel, Matthew Ruiz displayed a balletic grace that could have been taken from a production of the ballet Afternoon of a Faun. Another noticeable performance was that of D'Anthony Johnson as Sebastian.

For those not forearmed with a knowledge of the story, the narrative could be confusing at times, particularly after an opening where the dialogue was drowned out by the recorded sounds (something that also marred Tim Hedgepeth's production of A Christmas Carol at the Playhouse).

Having said all that, there was much to commend in this production, including the set design by Ty Mylnar and the lighting by Todd Deaver.