Times-Dispatch: "The Tempest" Is "Another Triumph" for Richmond Shakespeare

Richmond Shakespeare has been blessed to often strike a chord with Richmond Times-Dispatch reviewer Susan Haubenstock. She has given us some very nice reviews. But after her review for The Tempest, I feel like we should send her flowers and chocolate.

An excerpt:



A stunning visual opens the play: sailors on a storm-tossed ship, straining against ropes that form a triangle pointing off into the distance.

Deep in the background, beyond where the lines converge, paces Prospero, powerful, self-contained, the conjurer of the storm.

But Anthony Luciano, master of play for Richmond Shakespeare Festival's "The Tempest," engages our senses even more with an onstage sound crew that produces the noises of thunder and rain while the sailors shout their distress.

Throughout, Andrew Hamm's original music punctuates and illuminates this glistening production, another triumph for this ever-inventive company.



I chose the above, not because it has my name in it, but because that last phrase, "another triumph for this ever-inventive company," is (to quote the play) the stuff dreams are made of. That's just a great quote for publicity.

I want to use this space to acknowledge the huge contribution made by Wayne Conners and Kevin Neilson, my musical partners in the show. They mask my feeble guitar playing and make the heart of the music beat. Each one of them was my first choice when looking for musicians, and they have exceeded my expectations tenfold.

Read the whole review, and come see the show before it's gone!