The Tempest

The Tempest

Written by William Shakespeare
Performed in Russian
2011–2014

“There is something very modern about this character who is desperately learning to forgive. Prospero is learning how to deal with the fact that reality is not how he would like it to be; and he has lived in a very controlled universe and he is trying to break free of that. He has got to sort out the relationship with his daughter, his relationship with his environment and his relationship with himself. He must learn how to forgive, and the play is about someone screaming noisily trying to learn how to forgive and leaving the world of revenge behind him. It’s a very anarchic play.”
— Declan Donnellan, Artistic Director, on The Tempest

The Moscow Chekhov International Festival’s forceful production of The Tempest. Cheek by Jowl’s Russian sister company brings to life this disturbing masque of power, control and illusion. Shakespeare juggles magic, laughter, danger and love with all the flair and freedom of his maturity. Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s internationally renowned Russian ensemble, whose ‘acting is nothing short of sublime’ (The Times), have also performed in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, Three Sisters and Boris Godunov.

A Chekhov International Festival production in association with Cheek by Jowl, with support from Les Gémeaux/Sceaux/Scène Nationale. This production is suitable for 16+. The first performance of this production was at Les Gémeaux, Sceaux, Paris, on 26th January 2011.

“It is faithful and outrageous, comic and moving. It is Irish and Russian. It is a peak of world literature. It is Shakespeare at his greatest, at his most universal.”
Le Figaro

Cast and creative team

Cast

Name	Character
Mikhail Zhigalov	King Alonso
Pavel Kuzmin	Sebastian
Igor Yasulovich	Prospero
Evgeny Samarin	Antonio
Yan Ilves	Ferdinand
Alexander Lenkov	Gonzalo
Sergey Zaitsev	Adrian
Vadim Norshtein	Francisco
Alexander Feklistov	Caliban
Ilia Ilin	Trinculo
Sergey Koleshyna	Stephano
Maxim Onishcheno	Master of the Ship
Gela Meskhi	Boatswain
Anna Vardevanian	Miranda
Andrey Kuzichev	Ariel

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Lighting Designer	Kristina Hjelm
Music	Dmitry Volkov
Assistant Director	Kirill Sbitnev
Choreopgrapher	Konstantin Mishin
Assistant Choreographer	Irina Koshuba
Interpreter / Literary Consultant	Anna Kolesnikova
Costume Designer’s Assistant	Natalia Vedeneeva
Stage Manager	Olga Vasilevskaya
Company Manager	Olga Sharapova
Technical Director	Vladimir Kizeev
Tour Manager	Anna Krasnova

Previous performances

Previous Performances

Date	Location
23–25 April 2014	Caracas, Venezuela
16–20 April 2014	Bogotá, Columbia
1–3 October 2013	Seoul, Korea
21 April 2013	Samara, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Russia
20 April 2013	Samara, Russia
16–17 April 2013	Ekaterinburg, Russia
27–29 January 2013	Montevideo, Uruguay
18–20 January 2013	Santiago de Chile, Chile
19 June 2012	Moscow, Mossovyet Theatre, Russia
16–18 March 2012	Beijing, China
17–19 February 2012	Taipei, Taiwan
1–4 December 2011	Barcelona, Spain
16–17 November 2011	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
30 June–1 July 2011	Naples, Italy
4–5 June 2011	Voronezh, Platonov Festival, Russia
25–27 May 2011	Moscow, Mossovyet Theatre, Russia
7–16 April 2011	London, Barbican, UK
16–19 March 2011	Southampton, Nuffield Theatre, UK
8–12 March 2011	Oxford, Oxford Playhouse, UK
3–5 March 2011	Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK
26 January–12 February 2011	Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France
1988–1989	See also – Cheek by Jowl’s previous 1988 production of The Tempest

Reviews

“A rough, harsh Tempest…Fine, fresh, bold…Every character is played with heart, from the inside out.”
Michael Coveney, The Independent

“A Tempest blessed with wild invention, blazing performances and a final sense of unsettlingly qualified forgiveness.”
Charles Spencer, The Telegraph

“Remarkable, wittily inventive… Makes us see The Tempest in a new light.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian

“Superb… An astonishing company of Russian actors… Startling and insightful.”
Susannah Clapp, The Observer

“Moments of exquisite lyricism elide with anguish and violence… Mesmerisingly performed in Russian… tidal force… an astute and absorbing vision of cruelty and compassion.”
Sam Marlowe, The Times

“It is faithful and outrageous, comic and moving. It is Irish and Russian. It is a peak of world literature. It is Shakespeare at his greatest, at his most universal.”
Armelle Héliot, Le Figaro

Production photo — Anna Vardevanian, Yan Ilves and Igor Yasulovich. Photograph: Johan Persson.

Watch the trailer for The Tempest at Chekhov International Festival

Video

Watch the trailer for The Tempest at Chekhov International Festival

“This is a Tempest blessed with wild invention, blazing performances and a final sense of unsettlingly qualified forgiveness.”
The Telegraph

We are acting in a play we have never read and never seen, whose plot we don’t know, whose existence we can only glimpse, whose beginning and end are beyond our present imagination and conception.

R.D. Laing

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

Act I, scene ii

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on: and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep

Act IV, scene i