Hanna Lass Sells Us on Tempest
Jeremy Barker, The Seattlest, June 16, 2009

There's one reason you can't miss Seattle Shakespeare's generally fine production of The Tempest, entering the third week of its run tomorrow (Wed.-Sun. 7:30 p.m., with weekend matinees; tix $20), and her name is Hana Lass. Following a turn as one of the three cast members of the Intiman's lauded production of Crime and Punishment, Lass tackles role of the "airy spirit" in Shakespeare's final masterpiece by switching up Ariel from a dour male role to a sexy sprite in a black veil. The character doesn't have a lot of lines, but Lass still owns the stage when she's speaking, and employed as a plot device to carry along an episodic work, she's just stunning in both movement and the special effects she's called to pull off.

The play, for those unfamiliar, is one of Shakespeare's late romances, those stories on dark themes that end on light notes. Prospero (Michael Winters) is the deposed Duke of Milan, exiled with his daughter Miranda (Carolyn Marie Monroe) to a desert island. He's also a sorcerer, and through the aegis of Ariel, a spirit he released from a dead witch's spell, he whips up a storm to drag his enemies to his little piece of personal hell: his usurping brother Antonio (Todd Licea) and his sponsor, Alonzo, the King of Naples (Bradley Goodwill). Prospero has some sort of revenge plot in mind that involves marrying his daughter off to Alonzo's son Ferdinand (Jeffrey Frieders), but it gets tripped up when Ariel finally convinces him of the inherent cruelty of what he's doing, and the play ends on a rather moving note about the power of forgiveness.

The production design takes the operatic approach to sets: spare playing spaces referencing images from the script, in this case the bric-a-brac of a shipwreck. The setting is lit in a palette of Caribbean blue. Similarly, costume designer Doris Black seems to draw most of her inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean, particularly when it comes to the uncivilized brute Caliban (Peter Dylan O'Connor), who approaches the character as a slightly nuttier Jack Sparrow. Prospero's colorful castaways are contrasted with the staid Edwardian dress of Alonzo and his crew.

Michael Winters is one of Seattle's most well-regarded actors (non-theatre folks may know him from his role onThe Gilmore Girls), but he, like so many talented actors, gets tripped up by Shakespeare. The language is tough, and though Winters delivers a fine vocal performance, he's not entirely convincing as the rage-filled sorcerer at the beginning. Winters tends to play characters with a gruff exterior who eventually reveal a kind, inner soul, which works at the end of the play, but the process of getting from point A to B is what counts in performance, and insofar as that's the case, he left us a little wanting.

Of the rest of the cast, Todd Licea and Kerry Ryan deserve special notice. The role of Antonio is not particularly big, but Licea performs it with a comfortable ease--we'd love to see him in a meatier role. As for Ryan, she plays Trinculo, Alonzo's jester. Along with Alonzo's butler Stephano (Eric Ray Anderson) and Caliban, Trinculo forms a commedia dell'arte influenced trio that supplies both comic relief and a subplot to the play. Anderson is funny in his own right as a drunk with delusions of grandeur, but Ryan is a marvelous physical performer, and her clowning was first-rate.

Overall, The Tempest is a recommendable play--saying a Shakespeare production has weaknesses is pretty much the same thing as saying there's a production at all. It just comes with the territory. It's not the most imaginative production you could do, but Seattle Shakespeare works some fine stage magic, and led by Lass, about whom we can't gush enough, this is a fine introduction to the coming Shakespeare in the Park summer season.

Oh, and one final note: the music for the production is done by local singing/songwriting phenom Jesse Sykes. Her music is not to this writer's taste, but she's got a loyal following and if that includes you, you might want to catch her rocking Seattle Shakespeare with fellow Sweet Hereafter-er Phil Wandscher at 10:30 p.m. on June 20, after the performance. It is a separate $20 ticket.