Olympia Dukakis at Orlando Playfest
Olympia's latest endeavor "The Other Side of the Island" made it to the other side of the country, to O-Town. This Tempest tale turned metrosexual deserves props for seeking yet another way of making Shakespeare's greatest work appealing to audiences of today.
The time eternal themes of revenge and forgiveness made their way to Playfest via a national group of actors (including Olympia, Lynn Cohen , David Ackroyd and Orlando son Timothy WIlliams). In typical playfest style, this was more of a formal read through than an actual show and many were clearly turned off by the fact that some of the famous actors needed their scripts while the lesser knowns like Timothy were in full show mode.
The plot was standard Tempest with Olympia playing "Prospera" the deposed Duchess of Milan. All are eventually summoned to her Island via her tempest powers while she fulfills her revenge fantasies only to forgive everyone in the end--and ensure her daughter marries the kings son thereby securing the succession of her family.
Highlights were the scenes with Caliban, Trinculo (Tim) and Stephano. The hermaphrodite Caliban played by the stunning Amanda Hastings-Phillips leads the unlikely pair on a wildly sensual ride and entices them to assist in her revolt. All of the humor in this play was mistakenly focused solely on this trio and not play-wide. All the same, when Tim, Amanda and Louis Butelli (Stephano) were on stage, the crowd couldn't help but roar with laughter.
Some felt this play missed the mark. I personally can't understand why the play simply wasn't called the Tempest. Olympia tweaked the stage direction, the interpretation and some of the language, but so do many contemporary directors. The play fell short of achieving the epic quality of this work and gave short shrift to critical scenes while emphasizing some of the longer soliloquies which dragged on and on. I know this was a read through, but the vocal pacing was inconsistent, you had many of the actors delivering quick snappy lines while others took a more classical drawn out approach. I would say-pick one style guys!!
Even still, it was very cool being in the first row watching the legendary Olympia. Kudos to Karen for getting us tickets so early.
The time eternal themes of revenge and forgiveness made their way to Playfest via a national group of actors (including Olympia, Lynn Cohen , David Ackroyd and Orlando son Timothy WIlliams). In typical playfest style, this was more of a formal read through than an actual show and many were clearly turned off by the fact that some of the famous actors needed their scripts while the lesser knowns like Timothy were in full show mode.
The plot was standard Tempest with Olympia playing "Prospera" the deposed Duchess of Milan. All are eventually summoned to her Island via her tempest powers while she fulfills her revenge fantasies only to forgive everyone in the end--and ensure her daughter marries the kings son thereby securing the succession of her family.
Highlights were the scenes with Caliban, Trinculo (Tim) and Stephano. The hermaphrodite Caliban played by the stunning Amanda Hastings-Phillips leads the unlikely pair on a wildly sensual ride and entices them to assist in her revolt. All of the humor in this play was mistakenly focused solely on this trio and not play-wide. All the same, when Tim, Amanda and Louis Butelli (Stephano) were on stage, the crowd couldn't help but roar with laughter.
Some felt this play missed the mark. I personally can't understand why the play simply wasn't called the Tempest. Olympia tweaked the stage direction, the interpretation and some of the language, but so do many contemporary directors. The play fell short of achieving the epic quality of this work and gave short shrift to critical scenes while emphasizing some of the longer soliloquies which dragged on and on. I know this was a read through, but the vocal pacing was inconsistent, you had many of the actors delivering quick snappy lines while others took a more classical drawn out approach. I would say-pick one style guys!!
Even still, it was very cool being in the first row watching the legendary Olympia. Kudos to Karen for getting us tickets so early.
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