THE TEMPEST FOR KIDS

by Alice Mascarenhas

Shakespeare 4 Kidz began its life as a schools project and very soon developed into a fully fledged professional production, and it is easy to see why. This is a great way of introducing children to Shakespeare’s work and the group has also found success in the past with other well known Shakey greats: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

The Tempest is possibly one of the most difficult of the Bard’s plays to adapt but it is achieved quite successfully throughout by its writers Julian Chenery (book and lyrics) and Matt Gimblett (book and music) with a host of musical numbers, comic and dramatic moments which tell the story to great effect using the musical numbers and dance routines to hold the young audiences’ attention span.

It is fast-moving and even though the trauma and torment of the original piece is somewhat lost it worked well and had the children (and the adults) mesmerised throughout as the complex themes of power, revenge, forgiveness, retribution, crime, punishment and of course the forces of good and evil were all brought to life.

Some might ask - but is it Shakespeare? The language is simplified but the piece remains fairly true to the original and it is an educational tool that wets the children’s appetites for more – where they are subconsciously being taught the works and about the greatest storyteller ever born.

But its success in this respect is a dual one as it also introduces children to the theatre in a fun and exciting way and makes theatre-going accessible to all with the hope they may revisit The Tempest as adults and join the theatre going audience.  

This is not an easy piece to translate for a young audience although the show itself flows easily from beginning to end even if at times it reveals its pantomime-like-structure to achieve maximum entertainment effect.

From a technical point of view, it was good to see lights at John Mackintosh Hall being used to great effect, and I appreciated the many more lights brought in for this production – and even then it proved difficult to light some areas of the stage.

One of the highlights for me, not normally seen locally, was the way in which live sound effects were created and used well. The set was adequate and created the right atmosphere with layers of colour used for dramatic effect – I especially enjoyed the opening number Into the Storm.

The cast as a whole was strong and gave very good performances. It would be unfair to single out any particular character but the children certainly had their favourites.

It was good to see the sponsors and educators in the audience (very much enjoying the moment) the morning I was there and trust that the Bonita Trust and John Mackintosh Hall Trust will continue to support such projects.  We need more productions of this nature!