“Is anyone having trouble following the plot of The Tempest?” queries aging 19th Century character actress Mrs Kemble halfway through her tour de force play reading. Well, yes – she is. Everyone else in the room is too delighted by the show to care.
Billed as her last reading ever, the true tempest tonight is the one in Mrs Kemble’s heart, as she continually breaks off to recount moments of her life story, each tale suddenly seeming more compelling, more in need of a public airing, than Shakespeare’s text. Every word is true, moving and passionate as she recounts a life of illusions, young love and enslavement – reflected immaculately in the script of The Tempest.
Jane Ridley is glorious as Mrs Kemble. The crystal-sharp edges of her performance shine, and the range and tone of her voice is equalled only by its clarity – each syllable tinkles into perfect place. She leaps from character to character, some from Shakespeare’s fictions, others from her own life, with subtle distinctions marking the facts from the fantasies, and no matter how little control the character of Mrs Kemble appears to have over her performance, Ridley is clearly in charge at all times.
She is provided with the perfect foil in the mutely expressive, mutton-chopped pianist Josh Harvey. The silent status battle between them is one of the comic highlights of a frequently laugh-out-loud show that nevertheless rakes the heart when dealing with plantation slavery and female emancipation.
This is in every sense a perfectly balanced piece, encapsulated in one beautiful line: “We played comedies mainly. Well, they were all tragedies actually but they came out comedies.” Encore!
5/5
Hugh Jones
