The Tempest - RSC

First preview tonight. Anyone there?

At first I was reluctant to see this as I've only seen two Shakespeares, one of them being The Tempest, but all the behind the scenes and Intel holographic stuff is starting to sound pretty exciting! May have to catch it before it shutters in January.

Saw this first preview (so usual first preview disclaimers please). I really love this production if you strip out the majority of the high tech stuff with Ariel. The computer graphics plus Mary Rose like set really lend it a beauty, and for me it is strongly cast, with SRB giving a quiet but wonderful Prospero (I was lucky enough to see his Ariel all those years ago).

Only serious gripes are audibility of any speech in the first scene and in Ariel's songs.

Don't get me wrong the trickery with Ariel is stunning but it detracts from the production.

Also interval feels like a long way in, where is it in other productions?

The RSC says that this is their annual family show in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Apart from the novelty thrill of the holographic Ariel, how does The Tempest fare as a family show?

I know there's a tradition, having seen the Little Angel puppet version for children in the Swan in 2012.

I remember Doran calling it Shakespeare's "most magical play" which it kind of is to an extent (along with A Midsummer Night's Dream but that's already been done this year) and therefore probably one that allows more spectacle than most. I admit I was a bit gutted to see that the Christmas show was a Shakespeare and not another exciting adaptation like Matilda or Wendy and Peter Pan, but this sounds like it could be a great production!

I frankly dont see the need for the RSC to do a family show every year. Noble revived it in 1999 with LWW but i just dont see it as part if their remit im afraid!

will it work as a live cinema screening.....the Birmingham Royal Ballet have just done a spectacular if quite literal ballet of The Tempest which boasts some superb underwater scenes. I just wanted a bit more magic.

I have no idea what LWW is, or was, but it makes sense for their main house winter production to have the strongest appeal to local audiences, at the time of year when visitors are thinnest on the ground. And the winter is when most once-a-year families go to the theatre. And there's the hope and expectation that some of them will enjoy it so much that they're interested to try something else in the rest of the season.

I'm suspicious that The Tempest is of limited appeal to most families, being Shakespeare, despite the special effects, and I hope that it doesn't backfire on the RSC by alienating families who may think the advertising was misleading.

Agree. I wouldn't take my family to it. I assume they've said it simply to increase audience numbers for this expensive production.

There's not really any real reason to cut The Tempest to make it palatable to families (unless you're really uneasy about kids understanding precisely why Caliban fell out of favour), it's Shakespeare's second shortest play and doesn't really have any right to drag on for three hours or more.

He did it at the Haymarket didn't he - from what I recall it was well over 3hrs.

Oh it's just amazing

Wonderfully acted

So so moving

And SRB is entirely fantastic

Sadly the much trumpeted video work is a massive flop

And I wish they had not used it

Looks cheap and like something from the 1980s

Entirely at odd with the acting fireworks going on

Incongruous

Despite this MASSIVE blot

It's a must see and not a single weak link in the cast