Theater is not a museum piece. These productions purport to give us the plays "as written" without directorial interpretation -- and the result is deadly dull. Meant to clarify the literature for students, it is more likely to put them off Shakespeare for life. Hard to watch, the eyes glaze over -- competent actors doing a shallow, predictable, insufficiently imagined provincial stage performance: a lot of empty shouting and presentational hackery -- nobody's cup of tea. Aimed low, and missed . . .
Review of The Tempest
