REVIEW: THE TEMPEST

BY RYAN M. LUEVANO

If you like theatre and immersive experiences then you’ve likely seen the ads for The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company’s premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined immersive performance. A performance where “Guests will find themselves shipwrecked onto the shifting sands of an island under the spell of supernatural powers.”

Before the show begins audiences are thrust into the “immersive” part of the show. First, we are escorted into a ship room, a room designed to feel like being aboard a ship during a storm. What ensues here is utter chaos. Actors yelling and cavorting around the room with no sense of purpose. There was a missed opportunity for the company to introduce characters from the play and truly set the scene. The actors in the immersive part of the show were not key players in the primary play, thus there was a significant disconnect. 

Following this audiences are led into the main theatre space which was beautifully and intricately conceived by Sara Beil. The challenge here was that it was a huge space to design. The large warehouse space featured a few activations such as a cave, the inside of a tree, and a sand area. There are plenty of photo-worthy areas for audiences to snap a picture with. The highlight of being in the main space is the audience’s goal of solving some puzzles and riddles. With the brief storm on the ship and the solving of puzzles on the island, the immersive experience is over. Once the show began it was just another Shakespeare play. 

The scenes and scenarios from The Tempest are ripe for visual and immersive storytelling, yet even with the collaboration of these two capable companies, these opportunities were squandered in favor of a traditional languid text-heavy production set to iambic pentameter. What audiences get is another stale version of The Tempest. Even with the close thrust-style theatre layout, there was no significant interaction with the audience that surrounded the action. 

What did help the production were the short music and dance moments that were trickled into the play providing a nice respite from the confined recitations. The choreography by Jen Oundjian was light and evocative in her movement choices. With various levels of dance training in the cast, there was a sense of comfortability for all. Dance captain, Anja Racic was a standout dancer whose controlled graceful movements were noticeably above the cut—a covert talent among the rest. 

Overall, the cast of The Tempest was all capable of conveying the Shakespearian language; their limitations stemmed from an unimaginative direction, not their own skills. Chris Butler as Prospero brought a compelling depth to every line—a master of language, intent, imagination, and physicality. Rodney Gardiner, performance rings in like a bullet whenever he makes an entrance—he is able to give interest in the banal guardsmen scenes. Jin Maley as Ariel is a consummate performer who embodies this role in every muscle in their body—an entrancing performance. 

With a Shakespeare performance that’s billed as an “all-new reimagining of a Shakespearean classic” and “genre-defying,” the execution falls short. This could have been an exciting way to not only bring non-Shakespeare-loving theatergoers, or non-theatergoers into the theatre but also keep them coming back for more. Perhaps this critic has seen too many Shakespeare productions some of which were “all-new reimagining” and a newcomer will find this production innovative and enthralling.

Calendar Listing

1238 West 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Dates: Previews: March 16 – March 23
Run dates: March 24 – April 16
Times: Thursday, Friday, Saturday Evening
o VIP Entry starts at 7:00 pm
o Premium and GA Entry is between 7:20 – 7:40 PM
o Show Time starts at 8:00 PM
Saturday Matinee
o VIP Entry starts at 1:30 pm
o Premium and GA Entry is between 1:50 – 2:10 PM
o Show Time starts at 2:30 PM
Sunday
o VIP Entry starts at 2:00 pm
o Premium and GA Entry is between 2:20 – 2:40 PM

o Show Time starts at 3:00 PM

Duration: The performance is 135 minutes preceded by up to 60 minutes of immersive exploration.

Prices: Tickets begin at $35 – $125
Purchase: tempestla.org