Belly Laughs From the Bard?

Aye, many. And at the end, tears of joy, too. The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey's new production of The Tempest keeps the signature sorcery subtle, letting one of its finest actors, Sherman Howard, give us a warts-and-all sorceror--Prospero--we can yet warm to.

I’m not overstating the belly laughs. You can count on Shakespeare to send in the clowns when they’re needed most. Here the boffo buffoons are a trio of drunken connivers who literally get tangled up together: Jon Barker (as Prospero’s slave, Caliban), Patrick Toon (as Trinculo, a court jester) and Jeffrey M. Bender (as Stephano, butler to the King of Naples).

For all their tumbling and staggering around, the most physically demanding role in director Bonnie J. Monte’s conception of Shakespeare’s last masterwork may be the role of Ariel, the magical sprite who carries out Prospero’s orders.

Shakespeare wrote Ariel as male, but Erin Partin, in her 13th season with STNJ, brings a slithery-spidery, crouching-cresting sinuousness to the role that makes you wonder whether J.M. Barrie drew his inspiration for Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell from Ariel.

I hope that doesn’t make Partin’s Ariel sound silly. She moves with the grace of a dancer as she insinuates herself into the action while remaining invisible to the other characters, then vanishes from sight in an instant behind a rock upstage. Kudos to scenic designer Brian Clinnin for the concentric tiers and swirls of his set, suggesting lava flows become rock and including tiny pools and crevices necessary to the plot.

STNJ regulars will remember Sherman Howard as the creepily ingratiating interloper, Spooner, in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land in 2010. Under Monte’s direction, every moment and every aspect of that production so perfectly expressed Pinter’s signature drollery masking menace (or isolation) that I came back to see it two more times.

The recent production of No Man’s Land on Broadway, with the great actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the lead roles, did not come close to capturing what Monte’s players did on the STNJ stage at Drew University in Madison. To adapt what Spooner says to butter up Hirst, his alcoholic host, the STNJ No Man’s Land "belongs to that rarest of categories–the unique!"

Howard, a big man, can wield power on stage almost by lifting an eyebrow. Drape him in a sorcerer’s cape and put a magic staff in his hand, and he could part the Red Sea faster than Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments and at the same time install EZ-Pass for the Israelites.

In The Tempest, Howard peels back all of Prospero’s contradictory layers–victim who victimizes, loving father and shrewd manipulator, revenge seeker and big-hearted figure who can forgive.

The Tempest is some 400 years old, but it is still stunning when, in the epilogue, Prospero turns to the audience, and begs them to "release me from my bands, With the help of your good hands."

Prospero’s final speech has been interpreted as Shakespeare himself stepping out from behind the cloak of his character to speak candidly to the audience. Whatever, in Monte’s direction, delivered with Howard’s gentle strength, the joy swells and the applause is most freely and gratefully given, with many rising to their feet.

In short, it’s wonderful. The Tempest continues on the main stage through June 22.

ShakespeareNJ.org, 973-408-5600

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