Director Matt Edgerton’s take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a joyous production played in an open space, animated by simple yet playful movement. Centred around Prospero, a master of illusion and magic, The Tempest is typically read as a parable for theatre itself. The cast and crew embrace this idea, and the performance is full of knowing winks and overt reference to the audience. Embracing its own theatricality and directed outward to invite us in, this warm-hearted performance is perhaps what we need in these not quite yet post-COVID times.

The cast of The Tempest. Photo © Daniel James Grant

Zoë Atkinson’s set provides much of the appeal: a central circle of yellow sand backed by a small group of raised platforms overlooking the playing area. The performance feels like an extended beach holiday, or even a children’s playground and sand pit. The cast stomp in the sand, run circles about it, draw patterns across it, and even dig into it to reveal hidden treasures. Choric singing both precedes and concludes the evening’s action, and selected key props and costumes are borrowed from audience members to be...