The Queen Mab Players, a small theater troupe associated with RoleCall Theater, attempts to stir up a little Shakespearean magic with its bare-bones, black box production of The Tempest, onstage at Limelight Theater through November 5.
The performers are committed, with most of the cast taking on dual roles in the play, and it is interesting to see an epic of such stormy scale staged with no real budget for effects, costumes, set design, lighting design or puppetry. The play happens with stage blocks and a shelf of knickknacks. The largest prop is Prospero’s staff: a tree branch.
On opening night, there were six performers onstage and perhaps as many attendees in the audience. The performers deserved better attendance, at least from their friends, family and neighbors. And they deserve to be called to audition for other shows, for they did good character work with a very difficult, classic script.
As Prospero, the doomed duke exiled to an enchanted island with his daughter, actor Jason Hamlet plays the man more subdued and bemused than bitter or intimidating. Hamlet is charming in Prospero’s softer moments and asides to the audience, but the role commands more attention when it is played with fearful power. His closing monologue was nice.
Teeq Hill, who takes on the roles of Prospero’s daughter Miranda and the enchanted spirit Ariel, fares better with the physicality of Ariel, who crouches and climbs across the blocks onstage like an animal on the hunt, banging open windows. Her Ariel was interesting to watch.
Chris Smith’s Caliban is played mostly for laughs, with an affected lisp. His Ferdinand is noble and attractive.
Anna Fontaine, playing three roles but particularly the treacherous Antonio, was a highlight. She played to the small crowd, making eye contact with the audience during soliloquies, drawing them into the show. It was good work. Fontaine understood the challenge of playing antiquated language to a small room and met that challenge.
Evan Fields and Hannah Pniewski also were good and funny.
The show is well-paced and runs about two hours, thanks to the abridging of the script and the direction by Lyssa Hoganson.
But it does not deserve a full-throated recommendation. The cast does its best — but, sadly, it would disappoint most audiences.
Still, people who wanted to create art achieved it simply for the love of theater, and that’s about the coolest motivation in the world. Additionally, the show involves a little-used theater space, the former home of the Village Theatre, which should remain available.
But why stage this particular show in this way? The rights to stage The Tempest are free because the work is in the public domain. The title is familiar, and it has some bucket-list roles. The troupe’s love of Shakespeare is apparent. But this does not do it justice.
Still, the troupe has potential. They should next consider doing staged readings of new work, perhaps finding more local playwrights hungry to see their scripts staged for the love of the art – and maybe also find some designers eager to practice their craft. It would give the actors new challenges, tell untold stories, keep unused theater spaces alive and better connect with the Atlanta arts community.
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Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at the Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and at the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
