A storm's a brewin'
With Hurricane Irma brewing in the background and Waking the Feminists (WTF) still lingering on in many people’s consciousness, a new play that recasts Shakespeare’s The Tempest into a feminist ‘west Kerry riff’, couldn’t seem to get much more topical: The Shitstorm premiers on the Peacock stage from the 8-16th September for Dublin’s fringe festival. Despite its topicality however, it remains elusive and reluctant to be placed within any specific time frame or moment; as if to add to this feeling of defiance, each night is brought to a memorable close with a mock punk-rock gig, feat. Miranda on lead vocals pouring out some very ‘elemental’ tunes.
Simon Doyle’s witty yet layered text combined with Maeve Stone’s insightful direction gives way to a show full of surprises, sharp gag
s and strong themes of possession, memory, gender and just a little bit of magic. The beauty of this play lies in the characters playful reimagining’s from their originals: Prospero (Bryan Quinn) is an eccentric professor father, an “overeducated orangutan” in the eyes of his capable yet tempestuous daughter Miranda, played by Fionnuala Gygax. The colonised Caliban played by a very amusing Ian Toner seems to, in this storm, represent merely a comic clown. A role which I couldn’t help but feel slightly dissatisfied by; an unlikely romance between him and Miranda also simmers away yet is never fully touched upon. The sprightly Ariel, played by Pom Boyd, thereby giving the usually ‘gender ambiguous’ fairy a definite female presence, also provided generous comedic moments and insightful lines easily missed in amongst the surrealist madness that is, The Shitstorm.
To digress slightly: Shakespeare wrote his play The Tempest during the Renaissance, a time famed for arts ‘re-birth’, it seems that Simon and Maeve are pushing for the same in this interpretation, urging one to forge their own artistic path through the storm. We may be just “mammal’s with notions” but we run this joint—so let’s own it!
