BWW Reviews: THE TEMPEST, The Unicorn Theatre Theatre, May 17 2010

What is the right age to introduce young people to (by common consent) the greatest dramatist England has produced?

Your reviewer can remember sitting in an English Literature classroom and voting that the class study "To kill a Mockingbird" rather than "Pride and Prejudice" for O level. Mr Morley, no doubt bemoaning the oikish lot in front of him, having spent a career in the grammar school abolished to create the mega comprehensive a few years earlier, asked us why. "It's a better story, Sir - all that poncing about with Darcy and those sisters does my head in", or words to that effect, was the response. Mr Morley curled a lip and told us that people will still be reading Jane Austen long after Harper Lee is forgotten. "Why sir?". "It is in the language", was his pained and, from the perspective afforded by thirty-three years distance, correct rejoinder.

Shakey was compulsory though and, in my case, it was Julius Caesar. Its plotting and poetry eventually won over bright 15 year-olds, but only after multiple readings and supported by excellent teaching and textbooks. What chance an 11 year-old coming to Shakespeare unprepared for the antiquated speech, the "jokes" an interweaving of plots that the Hill Street Blues writing team may have rejected as overly ambitious? If the full house of parents and kids at The Unicorn's splendid new production of The Tempest is a guide, then every chance, as the pre-teens lapped up the tale of the magician, the maiden and the monster.

The Unicorn enjoys a well deserved reputation for high production values and superb acting, all done within the context of children's theatre. Their Tempest is no exception, the theatre's own company performing multiple parts and quick costume changes to drive the drama forward with the pace essential for children's theatre to work. But the breakneck speed of the play was too much for your reviewer, as it so often is when Shakespeare is performed - my ear and brain simply can't keep up with the poetry, as it flows so perfectly from the actors and I find myself longing for a pause and rewind button to enjoy more fully the genius at work. Even subtitles would help me! The kids were happy though, as was Emma Thompson, who queued up with us non-Oscar winners for an unreserved seat amongst the kids she had brought along, enjoying the play and supporting London's premier dedicated children's theatre with understated aplomb.

The Tempest is at The Unicorn Theatre until 19 June 2010

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