Tempest in a Tea Pot not everyone's cup of tea.

Tempest In A Teapot by Ottawa's Company Of Fools @ MainLine to February 28. An original post-modern deconstruction, part parody part homage, of the original classic “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, written in 1610. The protagonist leads us on a journey of storytelling as he/she struggles to steer a production of the play while an unruly cast continually questions the script, steps in and out of character and occasionally breaks into song.

Technically sound, the acting is up to par, clever use of the equally cleverly designed set, even the lighting was well designed (for MainLine that is saying a lot), great costumes, and short enough (at under 80 minutes) to keep you entertained. What was most obviously lacking was some actual music. The dead silence in the background left my ears begging for some musical interludes to help smooth out the transitions. Good direction, and blocking was well paced but not perfect, yet for a touring company on a short run, adequate.

In the original, it’s protagonist the banished sorcerer Prospero, Duke of Milan, who uses his magical powers to punish and forgive his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore. The play takes place on an island under his control whose native inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban, aid (or in the case of Caliban, hinder) his work. While a comedy when it was initially published in 1623, modern editors have since re-labeled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. It did not attract a lot of attention before the closing of the theatres in 1642 but has since been critically acclaimed to the extent that it is now considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest works.

If you are not a fan of the Bard you will still get a tickle from this adaptation, and if you are a fan, and you don’t like anyone tampering with your ‘Tempest’, then you will probably not care for this take. Which begs the question who is the audience for this production… or who isn’t? -To be in the audience, or not to be in the audience? Based on the smattering of people in the audience, my guess is no one knows. -Maybe high school students? With no posters, no sandwich-board out on the ‘Main’, no flyers, no programs, and not listed in the QDF calendar, then apart from the MainLine connection, this out of town ‘company of fools’ may have a lot of trouble (to quote a line from the play) “putting bums in seats.”