By Tempest [Tem-pest]: Noun: 1: a violent storm. 2: tumult, uproar.
It begins with a storm.
But in “Frantic/Tempest,” a William Shakespeare adaptation, the storm is a sea of bodies.
Produced by Long Beach State’s California Repertory Company and directed by Theater Department Chair Ezra LeBank, the adaptation updates the setting to modern times while retaining the original language.
LeBank adapts certain scenes into “highly physical” dances and movements, condensing the epic into a tight 70 minutes.
During one of the adaptations, movement-based additions, the character of Caliban, played by Esmeralda Ruiz (center), is introduced via an explosive dance number. Caliban, a magical monster, is bound to help Prospero in his revenge quest. Photo credit: Delfino Camacho
“The show begins with a shipwreck, and what a fun opportunity to make something really broad and physical and to tell that story with our bodies,” LeBank said. “I love telling stories with bodies, and the more elemental it is like a storm, a shipwreck, a moment of magic … all those give very easily to movement, ideas you can express clearly without words.”
A “comedy” in the classical sense, “The Tempest” is Shakespeare’s final solo-written play. It is essentially a revenge plot – one that also involves humor, magic and love.
“It’s a story about an exiled Duke,” student actor Chloe Strolia, who plays Ferdinand, said. “He is exiled to this island with his daughter where he learns how to conjure magic, and he casts a Tempest, a storm to bring the people that wronged him to this island in an attempt to kind of reclaim what’s rightfully his.”
From left to right, Christina Du Chene as Prospero, Tavia Williams as Miranda and Chloe Strolia as Ferdinand perform during the “Frantic/Tempest” dress rehearsal on Feb. 11. Photo credit: Delfino Camacho
Portrayed by Christina Du Chene, the Duke uses the magic of two servant spirits to get revenge on the brother who betrayed him and usurped his role.
“That’s Prospero,” LeBank said. “So the story is what does he do when he has the opportunity for revenge, and how do they all deal with the various complications of that moment?”
Typically set on a remote island, the play’s setting is updated to an isolated, cavernous warehouse in contemporary Los Angeles.
Instead of a storm-caused shipwreck, the version portrays a post-climate-change LA ravaged by violent storms, leading Prospero’s targets to take refuge in the warehouse where the Duke lives.
The physical aspect is another storyline addition, although one that LeBank received help developing through the U.K.-based theatre company Frantic Assembly.
From left to right, student actor Chloe Strolia, who portrays Ferdinand in the play, struggles against the magic conjured by Ariel, played by Natalie Quinn. Ariel is one of two magical spirits helping Prospero in his complicated quest for revenge. Ferdinand is the son of Prosperous’ backstabbing brother. Photo credit: Delfino Camacho
Strolia first worked with Frantic Assembly when LeBank invited her to be an assistant director for “Frantic Long Beach,” a show the company created on campus last semester.
This year, Frantic Assembly helped train the cast for two weeks.
“As an actor, I often have a really hard time getting into my body; I often feel when I’m standing on stage that I look like I’m just standing reciting lines,” Strolia said. “So working with the Frantic practitioners… [they] really helped me find a physicality to the character that felt truthful.”
The Set design for “Frantic/Tempest” was sparse, with designer Saul Diaz focusing on a tarp meant to convey imagery representative of modern industrialization and classic sails of old ships from the original text. Photo credit: Delfino Camacho
Given the emphasis on movement, metaphor and lighting, the production design focused on simplicity.
LeBank worked with student designer Saul Diaz, who had previously designed a busy set for “Urinetown,” to create a more minimalistic environment with a deceptively “simple” tarp as the centerpiece.
“That’s how the set went from a full build of a warehouse to a tarp, which symbolizes warehouses and old factories, but also I folded and painted the tarp to look like a sail, meant to connect with the Tempest as a ship in a storm,” Diaz said.
Student actor Aryan Chhabra has a small but memorable role as Trinculo. While all actors made valiant efforts to make the dense language natural, Chhabra delivered funny lines and slapstick. Photo credit: Delfino Camacho
While some audience members might benefit from a SparkNotes refresher on the original play, “Frantic/Tempest” succeeds in its departures from the traditional.
The stormy shipwreck that opens the show is an early standout. Du Chene’s Prospero magically conducts the shipwreck, which is depicted as a mass of bodies created by the cast members.
Surprisingly effective, one can make out the ship’s shape through the mass of flesh.
Christina Du Chene as Prospero addresses the audience at the end of shakespeare adaptation “Frantic/Tempest” on Feb. 11. The show was produced in collaboration with CSULB, Cal Rep and Frantic Assembly. Photo Credit: Delfino Camacho
