Reviews: Chicago Shakespeare’s The Tempest

A Genuinely Magical Spirit Levitates Chicago Shakespeare’s “Tempest”

By Hedy Weiss for the Chicago Sun-Times, 18 September 2015

The mischievous sleight-of-hand unfolds even before the audience has settled into darkness and the formal start of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s altogether beguiling, ingeniously imagined production of “The Tempest.” It is set in motion by Ariel, the play’s ghostly pale “spirit.” Both muse and slave to Prospero, the reigning magician on a remote island, Ariel is a fellow who brings new meaning to the phrase, “now you see it, now you don’t” as he palms his playing cards barely an inch from spectators’ eyes.

But there’s an even bigger trick at work when it comes to this fleet and ingenious production that has been adapted and directed by Aaron Posner (whose play, “Stupid F…ing Bird,” was a big hit here last season), and Teller (the mostly “silent partner” in Penn & Teller ). And that trick is this: “The Tempest,” widely thought to be Shakespeare’s valedictory work, talks a great deal about magic, but rarely is it actually made manifest.

Here, every element of the story comes wrapped in a “spell” of some sort, from the music (a brilliant use of the songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan), to the movement (a monster formed with the interlocking bodies of two dancer-acrobats from Pilobolus), to the design (Daniel Conway’s beautiful set, best described as Victorian baroque nautical), to the actual acts of prestidigation designed by Johnny Thompson (including a levitation, a head-twisting body box and more). But best of all are the actors, who possess a sublime magic of their own, and find a way to turn all this artful “illusion” into profound emotional truth. Quite a trick, that.

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Review: You’ve never seen a ‘Tempest’ like this

By Chris Jones for the Chicago Tribune, 18 September 2015

Infused with a steampunk sensibility, scored with the bluesy songs of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, choreographed by Pilobolus and powered (to re-appropriate a phrase from makers of computer chips) by the world-class magic of Teller, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of “The Tempest” is quite unlike anything ever seen before on Navy Pier.

This enormously entertaining adaptation of the late Shakespearean drama is hardly the first to probe the white magic of Prospero — a mournful sorcerer who well knows that “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” — and to exploit the pervasive metaphor of the exiled leader reduced to casting spells on a remote island, waiting for justice, absolution and a future for his daughter, Miranda, all to wash up on its shores.

“God’s away on business,” wrote Waits and Brennan. True around here, too. Only when moral order is restored can Prospero put his tricks-for-the-good away for good.

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Chicago Shakespeare and magician Teller make magic with ‘Tempest’

By Philip Potempa for NWI.com, 21 September 2015

William Shakespeare would love what the creative forces at Chicago Shakespeare Theater have dreamed up for a magical new telling of his stage tale “The Tempest.”

For this project, they’ve teamed with award-winning directors Aaron Posner and Teller, the latter being half of the magic duo Penn & Teller,

Framed by the hauntingly beautiful music of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and seamless choreography from dance troupe Pilobolus led by Associate Artistic Director Matt Kent, this fun and fantastical “Tempest,” now playing until Nov. 8, is unlike anything ever dreamed up previously to enchant audiences.

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Chicago Shakespeare conjures imaginative, enchanting ‘Tempest’

By Barbara Vitello for the Daily Herald, 23 September 2015

Chicago Shakespeare Theater made magic at Thursday’s opening of “The Tempest.”

Literally.

Sleight-of-hand as well as larger illusions dominate this beguiling reinvention of William Shakespeare’s tale of love and forgiveness, brilliantly conjured by adapters and co-directors Aaron Posner (“My Name is Asher Lev”) and Teller, of the magic and comedy duo Penn & Teller.

And the magic isn’t confined to tricks.

There’s magic in the otherworldly soundscape, and in the songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Arranged for mandolin, vibraphone, upright bass and guitar, they’re rootsy, Americana-style tunes performed by a talented quartet made up of Ethan Deppe, Liz Filios, Jake Saleh and Bethany Thomas.

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