The Oregonian
May 7, 2008

Insight Out rethinks "The Tempest" and forgiveness

by Richard Wattenberg/Special to The Oregonian

With its new production "For:Give" the Insight Out Theatre Collective has turned to Shakespeare for inspiration. The play, written by Cindy Williams Gutierrez, is described as "an ensemble created work inspired by 'The Tempest.'" Exploring the ways in which Shakespeare treated the theme of forgiveness in this romance, Insight Out has come up with a sometimes moving, often imaginative, but not entirely satisfying adaptation of Shakespeare's late masterwork.

In "For:Give" scenes from the original play, "The Tempest," are interwoven and juxtaposed with scenes presenting a contemporary version of Shakespeare's play. In the modern story, the backdrop of political intrigue which led to Prospero's banishment to a distant isle becomes a
background of corporate greed which results in a somewhat different kind of banishment for the modern day Prospero, Priscilla. A victim of her ambitious sister Tanya, who wants to take her place as a partner of the real estate firm, ALANTCO Development, Priscilla is committed to a mental institution.

With her daughter Miranda, a pure but overly childlike young woman, who seems to have also been institutionalized, Priscilla escapes to an abandoned warehouse--the abode of a feral child, the play's Caliban, Callie. Here Priscilla with the assistance of her Ariel, who is less Shakespeare's spirit than a manifestation of a schizophrenia for which Priscilla may have legitimately been institutionalized, works her "magic."

Priscilla's sister Tanya and the controlling partner at ALANTCO Development, Alana, as well as Alana's estranged daughter and a disenchanted, drunken former employee of the firm all end up in
the warehouse to play out the action of "The Tempest."

The contemporary take on Shakespeare's romance offers some intriguing and appropriately modern transformations of the original tale; however, tending towards melodrama, it occasionally exhibits an awkward lack of nuance.

Still, there are a number of effective theatrical moments and director Tony Fuemmeler's seven-woman cast is solid. As Priscilla in the contemporary story and the King of Naples in "The Tempest" scenes, Allison Tigard is a powerful presence. Throughout most of the play, Tigard's Priscilla embodies a driven, almost demonic authority, and yet at play's end she poignantly conveys Priscilla's struggle to communicate the forgiveness she realizes she owes her sister. Heather Beckett gives majesty to her Prospero, but as the contemporary Tanya, she paints in strokes too broad to allow for what could be a more touching last moment with her sister.

The production utilizes some fine ensemble work. Especially effective is the company's group creation of the contemporary Ariel. Carefully choreographed expressive movement here and elsewhere gives the play a magical dimension.

Projections are also evocatively employed although the occasional failure to integrate them clearly into the action disrupts the momentum of the piece.

Continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, through May 17, Mississippi
Ballroom, 833 N. Shaver St.; $15; 503-493-8070, www.iotcpdx.com