An epic 'Tempest' on a tiny stage

A group of weary passengers crash lands onto a mysterious island, where they soon learn a dark truth: They're not alone. Shakespeare's "Lost" - I mean, "The Tempest" - storms onto the Theatre Intime stage this weekend in a joint production with the Princeton Shakespeare Company directed by Jenna Devine '12.

Benjamin Linus - I mean, Prospero - has been usurped. Once the rightful Duke of Milan, he was sent to die at sea with his beautiful daughter, Miranda. Luckily, he survives by landing on a magical isle, learning to control its magic and becoming the leader of its inhabitants. He crashes his enemies' plane - I mean, ship - onto the island, where it is separated into three sections: the cockpit, the middle, and the tail - I mean, three groups of people. Wow, there are a lot of similarities.

With pressed fingers and intense anger, Max Rosmarin '11 plays a fierce Prospero. He wields his spear-like staff at the throats of the supernatural and subnatural slaves that do his bidding. His sprite Ariel, played by Ariel Sibert '12, looks like a 1960s superhero wearing an exquisite band of aqua eye makeup - and her kryptonite is Prospero himself. Sibert's performance dispels any fear that she was only cast because her first name is Ariel; she skillfully ticks her head and tocks her arms in a modern dance that embodies her torment.

The magician's other minion, the "savage and deformed slave" Caliban, is surprisingly pretty. With boyish charm, Brad Wilson '13 plays not a monstrous humanoid, but, as Devine describes in her director's note, an orphan. Instead of being alienated by a theatrical grotesqueness, we are drawn in to sympathize with his bare-chested humanity. Wilson's Caliban becomes a central character in this production, complicating Shakespeare's theme of colonialism when he deserts Prospero for a new master.

Wielding his weapon of choice (a stolen liquor bottle), the fearless James Mears '11 as Stephano packs wit into every sip. His hilarious interactions with Caliban and the pouty-faced, frumpily-dressed Trinculo (Hannah Barudin '10) steal the show. The fact that Mears is a Christian Scientist and does not drink makes his performance especially impressive. But these chugging chums are only a third of Shakespeare's play, a sidebar in a greater tale of redemption.

As Devine notes in her bio, the most powerful aspect of the show should be Prospero's tale of forgiveness. Unfortunately, Prospero never seems to be in control of very much. With an edited version that runs less than two hours, Devine shows sensitivity to the attention span of contemporary theatergoers, but the shortened performance feels small. Though the intimate space reveals the strength of the performances, it robs us of any sense of the epic. The cartooned set should transport us to the magical world of an unenhanced isle; instead, we're left on a miniature golf course. It's hard to imagine an epic tale of redemption set on hole number nine.

If Devine's goal was to please, as Prospero confesses to the audience in his final soliloquy, the show succeeds. In the end, we wade through the necessary drama to reach the dry land of funny. And though the plot is eerily similar to everyone's favorite Tuesday-night television drama, there's one thing "Lost" can't compete with: Trinculo 69ing Caliban.

3.5 Paws