The Tempest

Hope Luna as Miranda (also played by Monique Lonergan) and Matt K. Miller as Prospero |
perform in Sacramento Theatre Company’s “The Tempest.”
Charr Crail Photography/Courtesy photo

 When you cast Sacramento Theatre Company favorites Michael RJ Campbell, Gary Martinez and especially Matt K. Miller in anything, you know you will have a hit on your hands.

Such is the situation with the current production of “The Tempest,” directed by Aaron Galligan-Stierle, his first as director. The production, however, showed no evidence of a newcomer.

Miller is wonderful as Prospero, former Duke of Milan, deposed by his brother Antonio (Ian Hopps) and left to die on a raft with daughter Miranda (Monique Ward Lonergan in the production I saw. She shares the role with Hope Luna). All he is given is a box of books from which he has studied magic. The raft lands on an island, where he and his daughter have been for 12 years.

Prospero has cast spells over the island’s inhabitants. The spirit Ariel (Emily Serdahl), previously imprisoned by the late witch Sycorax, becomes Prospero’s slave. Serdahl is lithe and fragile-looking, playing a guitar to indicate when she is casting a spell.

Caliban (Atim Udoffia), a monster half-human-half-fish, is also enslaved by Prospero and becomes his muscle man. He is a bitter slave whom Prospero describes as “got by the devil himself.”
(It is an interesting casting choice, with Miller the very-white Prospero and Udoffia the very-black Caliban, which may upset some.)

In the midst of a tremendous storm, a ship is wrecked on the shore of the island. The scene features great effects by scenic designer Eric Broadwater and lighting designer Jessica Bertine, though it’s interesting that all the shipwrecked passengers arrive in clothes, designed by Jessica Minnihan, which are neither wet nor torn. Maybe some of Prospero’s magic?

The storm is a marvel, with tremendous wind blowing stage-height panels, strobe lights making convincing lightning and the music accentuating the sound of the wind, all while the actors do their best to portray being shipwrecked.

By fortuitous circumstances, the passengers on the ship include Antonio, Alonso, the King of Naples (Gregg Koski), his son Ferdinand (Sam C. Jones), brother Sebastian (Kevin Gish), and his adviser Gonzalo (Gary S. Martinez). There are also the king’s jesters, Michael RJ Campbell and Jake Mahler, who provide comic relief throughout the play.

This gives Prospero a chance to use his magic and cunning wiles to get his revenge on his brother. Miller’s Prospero, above all else a loving father working to make a match for his daughter with Ferdinand, comes across as less a vengeful king, but more a brother getting back at brother.

As for Miranda, she has lived on the island her whole life and her father is the only male figure she has seen, so this handsome young man sets her pubescent genes pulsing instantly.

Though the inhabitants of the island now are actually in three different places, there is little to indicate that in the set design, and it was sometimes confusing to figure out where exactly the current scene was taking place.

All’s well that ends well, however, and Prospero regains his status as king, the brothers patch things up, Miranda and Ferdinand live happily ever after, Arial and Caliban get their freedom, and Prospero gives a moving epilogue to the audience asking them to forgive him for his wrongdoing.