TourCo’s Tempest delights with timeless themes and skilled cast

The best way to enjoy TourCo’s production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” is to remember its mandate: “to bring accessible, high-quality Shakespeare performances to various communities across the St. Louis area.” The Shakespeare Festival’s outreach company was created four years ago to provide free, professional-level productions to audiences who might not otherwise have access to live theater, but its appeal is broader and more democratic than that.

TourCo’s purpose is much like that of the Everyman's Library, a series of reprints of classic literature that began publication in 1906, the purpose of which was to make great works of literature accessible and affordable to a broader audience. There’s a reason why classic literature and theater are considered classic and the way they are kept alive is by experiencing them. Such are the dreams TourCo is made of.

The other, even better way to enjoy this production of an “The Tempest” is to consult the website and find a location at the 24 parks, schools libraries and civic centers in Missouri and Illinois where this traveling show is being presented through August 25. It’s a big tent approach to Shakespeare and one that The Bard himself no doubt would have approved of.

Opening night at the open-air Spring Church venue in Grand Center launched TourCo’s fourth production. “The Tempest,” directed by Tom Ridgely (who is also Artistic Director of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival), is a good choice and good fit for both the company’s outreach goals and its need to be portable. Ridgely rightly keeps a traditional visual approach to “The Tempest” in contrast to last year’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” staged and revised as a 90’s sitcom, or 2022’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as a self-described “highly musical Afro-futurist adaptation.”

Staging is kept to a bare minimum, though “The Tempest” features puppets (large and small), which embrace some of the magical and supernatural elements in the play. The puppets are designed by Ryan Marshall, currently the artistic director of America’s Birthday Parade, and wrangled by props manager and puppet fabricator, Taylor Abs. The large puppets of June, Ceres and Iris reveal Marshall’s parade and pageantry experience, but most creative is a short scene with a small Punch and Judy-style theater that explains the “back story” of the love between Miranda and Ferdinand.

Befitting the loose nature of TourCo’s productions, the cast is trimmed to a merry band of six versatile actors, most of whom play multiple roles. The script is trimmed, too, to a sprightly 90 minutes. One of the anticipated joys of a TourCo production is seeing how a small cadre of actors handle their multiple roles. For “The Tempest,” Alex Daspit plays Ferdinand and Alonso, Isaiah Di Lorenzo plays Caliban and Gonzalo, Daisy Held does a three-fer playing Miranda, Trinculo and a spirit, Aliyah Jacobs plays Ariel and the boatswain (as well as plays a pleasant ukelele and sings) and Reginald Pierre plays Stephano and Antonio (a composite of multiple characters in the original play).

It’s generally entertaining (and sometimes enlightening from an acting craft perspective) to watch how actors switch gears between their assigned characters. It’s challenging to convincingly portray different characters while wearing essentially the same costume with only a cape or a cap to visually indicate the change of persona. To wit, Daspit’s Ferdinand is stronger than his Alonso, which is not as kingly as it could be (hard to play a father to one’s own son, to be fair), Di Lorenzo’s Gonzalo is stronger than his Caliban (too much mugging) and Pierre’s inebriated Stephano, although amusingly pleasant, is thinner than his portrayal of the more serious, sometimes-menacing Antonio.

Held’s Miranda is just right as a naïve maiden, and her Trinculo has a delightful “I Love Lucy” comedic physicality at times. One of the performance’s best scenes is Act II’s drunken “Who’s On First”-type encounter among Held and Di Lorenzo (sandwiched under Caliban’s gabardine) and Stephano.

As the female interpretation of the original play’s central character, Prospero, Joy Christina Tuner delivers this production’s finest and most consistent performance. Hers is a kinder, gentler interpretation to Prospero, a powerful magician who orchestrates the events in the play to seek justice and reconciliation. Especially in her final soliloquies, Turner beautifully concludes the play's exploration of power, magic, forgiveness and the human condition.

One couldn’t ask for a better delivery of the “Our revels are now ended” and “We are such stuff as dreams are made on” speeches. And her character’s fourth-wall breaking epilogue asks the audience for their applause to set her free. It’s a satisfying, poignant reflection on forgiveness at play’s end.

Like her sprightly Ariel, Jacobs is small but mighty. In fuller productions, Ariel is sometimes portrayed flying like Wendy in “Peter Pan.” Here, Jacobs portrays an Ariel who seems capable of flight at any moment. One of the most affecting moments in this production is Prospero’s promised release of Ariel. This pivotal scene marks the culmination of Ariel's servitude and Prospero's transformation, and it works primarily because Jacobs and Turner provide such convincing and nuanced performances. 

Opening night had its fair share of hiccups, including a rain delay, puppets whose eyes didn’t operate properly and some mic-ing issues. In other types of productions these would have been annoying, but here they were charming reminders of the fluid nature of live, outdoor theater. One of most fun moments occurred in the final act when Prospera’s mic wasn’t working. Turner confidently continued to deliver her lines and move about the stages without pause, while the sound technician attended to her like Ariel’s techy sibling.

This production lives up to the goal of providing an “everyone’s Shakespeare” that has something for the youngsters to the young at heart and for the scholar-wonk to the high schoolers with “The Tempest” on their summer reading list. This performance delves into timeless themes of power, forgiveness and complex human relationships. The cast bring to life its rich characters and emotional depth, making it a modern, captivating and beguiling experience that just happens to have been written approximately 400 years ago.

Free performances of TourCo’s “The Tempest” continues through August 25 at venues throughout Greater St. Louis. Visit their website for dates and times.