Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s staging of The Tempest was hotly anticipated on fall preview lists, everybody (including me) getting worked up over its various components. Songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Choreography by Matt Kent of Pilobolus. Local favorite Larry Yando in the lead role. And an intriguingly odd couple of directors: Aaron Posner, author of Stupid Fucking Bird, a metatheatrical update of Chekhov’s The Seagull that became a hit for Sideshow Theatre in 2014, and—most fertile for column inches—Teller, the famously silent half of Penn & Teller, who was expected to bring legit magical effects to Shakespeare’s play about an old sorcerer executing his last great trick.
Only they didn’t. Instead, they washed up on a remote and mysterious island presided over by a witch named Sycorax, whom Prospero promptly overthrew in his turn.
Which leads us to a crucial aesthetic achievement of the show: That despite all the excess implied by big fantasy, neat effects, and a list of cool collaborators, it never feels gratuitous. Everything is grounded in motive and struggle and interaction. Nothing exists merely to make us say wow—though plenty does. v
Through 11/8: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM Chicago Shakespeare Theater 800 E. Grand 312-595-5600chicagoshakes.com $48-$88
