Photo: Jerry Dalia
William Shakespeare's The Tempest is the play that launched Bonnie J. Monte as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 1991. After twenty-three years of contemplating and considering the many ways there are to interpret the Bard's fantastical tale of forgiveness and reconciliation (based on her director's notes), she has returned to it with renewed appreciation for its complexity and for the play's aim to "please" (quoting Prospero).
With commendable if not startling results, Monte's vision and perspective is above all both personal and pleasing. Only Bardologists and others who have seen the play numerous times can say whether or not she has approached it with a new or previously unexplored insight. For the rest of us, it is a visually arresting production that doesn't attempt to either awe us with special effects or embroider its psychological subtext. Nevertheless, the aura of magic and mysticism looms over it as impressively commandeered by Sherman Howard's tempestuously tempered performance as Prospero. To read the complete review please go to: http://curtainup.com/tempestnj14.html
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