Hopes were high for star theatre director Jamie Lloyd's latest celebrity-led production, said Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. The 2,000-seater Theatre Royal Drury Lane – London's oldest and grandest theatre – hadn't staged a work by Shakespeare since 1957, when John Gielgud played Prospero in a production of "The Tempest" for Peter Brook; so news that Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver was to make her West End debut there, in the same role, created quite the buzz – and seats were priced to match. Alas, the production, which opened just before Christmas, is a turkey.
'Prospero makes next to no impression'
"Dressed down, like a crew member from 'Blake's 7' hired on a minimum wage, this Prospero makes next to no impression at all," said Clive Davis in The Times. In fact, Weaver's performance is so stiff and dull, you think an Alexa-type smart speaker "could have breathed more life into the lines". Still, there are other performances that almost right the listing ship. A semi-naked Forbes Masson, sporting what looks like a black nappy, makes a convincing, melancholic Caliban. Mason Alexander Park, hoisted high over the stage, is a thrilling Ariel. And Selina Cadell is so assured as Gonzalo, you can't help wishing that she'd been cast in the lead.
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'Bleakly spectacular' staging
I rather liked this "Tempest", said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Admittedly, Weaver's "featureless" delivery leaves a "vacuum" in the central role. But the show's visuals – inspired, perhaps, by the actress's sci-fi filmography – are dazzling.
Designer Soutra Gilmour has conjured a "bleakly spectacular" staging, agreed Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. Prospero's island is at times a "barren Dune-like landscape strewn with black rubble", at others a "mysterious, otherworldly oasis". But it's not enough to save a lacklustre, "unmoving" production, in which the star turn has gone awol and Shakespeare's rough magic is "lost at sea".
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