The Tempest Project presented by Music on Main
July 17 – 22, 2024 | The Vancouver Playhouse
On an island full of magic and intrigue, the characters of Shakespeare’s The Tempest are on a journey of discovery — of the island itself, and of themselves.
Audiences that arrive at The Vancouver Playhouse for The Tempest Project will find themselves in a similar position. Although the venue may be familiar, the way in which it’s used for this production is anything but.
After choosing one of six colour-coded adventures, groups of up to twenty audience members follow the corresponding glowing wand held high by their guide. What becomes immediately clear as we walk down the aisles of the theatre and settle into our first stop on stage is that we are not simply watching a performance, we are the performance. Surrounding the musicians, who are all dressed in dark blue coveralls, we are close enough to read their sheets of music. Our experiences are manifesting the themes of enchantment and discovery.
Singing “we saw things” accompanied by ethereal flute and xylophone, Julia Ulehla emerges from a large door at the back of the stage and weaves around us before walking up the aisle, leaving a trail of sound in her wake.
With no knowledge of how long you’ll be in a particular spot or where you’re going next, while surrendering to the music and the suspense of it all, it’s a very different mindset to take in a performance, as if all your senses are heightened hoping to glean a clue about what’s to come.
We leave the stage to go back out into the lobby and up the stairs, stopping to overlook the landing where Dailin Hsieh on the zheng and Paolo Bortolussi on the flute treat us to a beautiful duet incorporating “ahhhhh”s and “hmmmm”s from the audience.
I’ll be honest, one of the draws of this production was a chance to have a tour of the backstage areas of the Playhouse along the way, and that doesn’t disappoint as we make our way down the stairs to the basement, past dressing rooms and into the Playhouse Studio, a small room lit by patio lights and candles. Four musicians sit in the centre of the room, and we settle into chairs in semi-circles around them. Aram Bajakian on guitar, Saina Khaledi on santour, Jonathan Lo on cello, and Julia Ulehla on vocals come together in rousing harmony as Ulehla sings Gonzalo’s lines that begin, “In the commonwealth” — a speech about colonization as he describes how he would take over the island.
Walking back up the stairs we find our way through the dark wings back into the theatre seats to watch Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa’s piano solo, an ominous piece full of breathy sounds, voices, and hissing which evokes a stormy scene of wind and waves. In the almost pitch-black theatre, Prospero’s famous words hang on the air “Our revels now are ended […] We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” At that moment the small light illuminating Iwaasa’s face goes out.
Down the stairs to the other side of the basement, past signs reading “Restricted access. Performers only.” and through a beautiful green room stocked with snacks, we found ourselves in a dressing room, ‘Chorus Room 1,’ staring at ourselves in the mirror, unforgiving lights and all. Soon it’s a cacophony of sound as various instruments pass behind us and we’re encouraged to make whooshing noises while rubbing our hands together and stomping our feet. We’re suddenly immersed in sound, and if we forget that we’re part of the show, this helps to remind us.
Down another hallway and past the stage door, we find ourselves back in the theatre for Dailin Hsieh’s zheng solo, accompanied by whooshing, leg slapping, and hand rubbing from the audience. The white curtains behind her drop to reveal the rest of the company performing “Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves.” Artistic director David Pay comes down the aisle onto the stage, a Prospero type figure, reciting a final monologue beginning with those same words as he opens the door at the back of the stage to reveal the street behind the building. A vista that evokes The Tempest’s themes of discovery and magic, leaving us with a feeling that anything is possible.
Photos courtesy of Jan Gates.