The Tempest, Northern Stage

THE brave new world of this thrilling co-production is utterly captivating. Shakespeare’s late, great masterpiece about a refugee Duke making right the wrongs done to him and by him gets a thorough laundering in this co-production from Northern Stage, Improbable and Oxford Playhouse.

When Prospero (Tyrone Huggins) is banished with his daughter Miranda, the text tells of supporters providing them with “Rich linens” and these are transformed by designer Becs Andrews into a stage contoured with tons of clothes. This wonderful landscape is hugely dynamic, ever-changing and in execution is a rare vision indeed.

The shipwrecked company find their clothes bleached white – again a clever interpretation of the text and one which, along with an acted out backstory, aids the telling of the tale. Prospero is aided by his magic and also by his enslaved elemental, Ariel, and Eileen Walsh provides a fascinating interpretation of the airy spirit who is vulnerable and damaged. Caliban, the grotesque mooncalf is Peter Peverley, who cleverly invokes our sympathy and disgust simultaneously whilst being hugely entertaining.

We have a subtle underscoring throughout, provided by Brendan Murphy. His music, the "thousand twangling instruments" of the isle, is a sparkly array of glass and metal percussion. Huggins embodies this Prospero with a humility and a growing sense of frailty that has Lear-like echoes, while his treatment of his slaves, particularly Ariel is all rather voodoo. Tony Bell, doubling as both noble Gonzalo and drunk butler Stephano is superb in both roles but all the company, onstage and off, is to be applauded.

*Runs until Saturday (Oct10). Box Office: 0191-230-5151 or northernstage.co.uk

Sarah Scott