What would Shakespeare make of this modern take on his play The Tempest? Would he exert his moral authority and denounce the liberties John Farmanesh-Bocca has taken with it, stripping it down to 95 minutes, having two actors (Dash Pepin and Willem Long) play Caliban, employing three dancers to play Ariel (with her lines coming to us via voice-over), using music by Vivaldi and Dinah Washington to spice up the action? Or would the always inventive and open-minded Shakespeare get a kick out of Tempest Redux, appreciate the way it has been given a new lease on life? The Bard might also appreciate Jack Stehlin’s performance as Prospero, making him more Lear-like than magician, a once-proud nobleman reduced to dire circumstances by his island banishment. A veteran LA-based actor, Stehlin has collaborated with Bocca on a previous Shakespeare experiment, Titus Redux, with good results. He has also acted in and directed his own productions of MacBeth and Richard II, which perhaps explains why his work in Tempest Redux is so assured and impressive. He makes us feel compassion and sorrow for the storm-tossed, grieving Prospero, a tragic Shakespearean hero now, one who leaves it to his daughter Miranda (Mimi Davila) and her lover Ferdinand (Charles Hunter Paul) to utter the words of hope and optimism that end the play. It’s the old giving way to the young, turning the world over to them. The large cast here is uniformly excellent, and the same holds true for the production itself, especially Christopher Murillo’s dream-like set, Thomas Marche’s video projections, and Bosco Flanagan’s evocative lighting. “What’s not to like?” might have been Shakespeare’s final comment on this New American Theater production.
