BREAKING BARD

The Globe's provocative new reimagining of 'The Tempest' refuses to follow any of the rules

- Alice Saville

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London

Shakespeare’s The Tempest famously takes place on a remote island, far from civilisation. But here, storied experimental theatremaker Tim Crouch (An Oak Tree, Adler & Gibb) has dragged his setting so many leagues away from traditional Shakespearean territory that it’s basically in the Bermuda Triangle. It’s unsettling, strange and bursting with a new liveness.

It feels like Crouch has taken it as a given that the audience broadly knows what happens in The Tempest (so hie thee to the library if you don’t). So, instead of simply telling the story, he’s used the script as a starting point for a playful exploration of colonialism and storytelling.