Leslie Brott Photo by Mikki Schaffner

This Tempest is performed in the round on a colorful Caribbean island set designed by Samantha Reno with sustainable intentions. The exiled magician Prospera (Leslie Brott) has conjured a terrible storm to wreak vengeance on the enemies who marooned her there. The shipwrecked survivors wander, comically bewildered, amidst the flotsam and jetsam of contemporary culture. A program note indicates that the set, costumes and props were made from recyclable and repurposed materials, all of which can be sustainably recycled when the show is over.

Shakespeare's central character was a man, Prospero, but in director Candice Handy's staging, Prospera, still powerful and initially vengeful, is now softer and ultimately generous. She carries a magical staff topped with an abundant floral arrangement. Brott gives the role a stately, warm performance, demonstrating a mother's love for Miranda (Dani Grace Nissen), her sweetly naïve teenage daughter stranded with her a dozen years earlier. With the magical aid of a sprite, Ariel (played with airy delight by Hannah Gregory), Prospera engineers a romantic encounter between Miranda and handsome young Ferdinand (Jason Coffenberry), the offspring of one of her rivals for power in Naples. To prove his love for Miranda, Ferdinand is called upon to move heavy logs. Actually represented by small pieces of cut wood, they prove to be a challenge that he hilariously and clumsily struggles to handle.

The Tempest contains some of Shakespeare's most amusing comic characters and moments. Sara Mackie plays Trinculo, a jester, and antic Cary Davenport is Stephano, a drunken butler. They are paired with Sylvester Little Jr. as Caliban, an island native whom Prospera has enslaved and transformed physically into a hissing, repellant reptile. Davenport's tipsy, kazoo-enhanced musical engagement of the audience, as he marches around the stage's central pool, is cause for great hilarity. Mackie's rough-and-tumble jester, hiding under a tarp with Sylvester's fearsome Caliban, is also especially amusing. The trio haplessly plot to take charge of the island, but they spend more time drinking, cavorting, and being distracted by Ariel's invisible interference.

The shipwrecked entourage–Jim Hopkins as befuddled King Alonso, Joneal Joplin as his wise elderly brother, and Jeremy Dubin and Jasmine Bouldin as a pair of scheming courtiers–wander the island in search of others. They are repeatedly misled by Prospera's magic and Ariel's manipulation. Gregory's fluttering performance as the sprite, often nimbly climbing on remnants of the ship's rigging and enjoying the mischief she is imposing, sustains the production's rapid momentum.

A Cincinnati troupe of talented Black youngsters, the Q-Kidz Dance Team, are the tiny dancing indigenous inhabitants of the island. These half-dozen pint-sized players, delightfully choreographed by Darnell Pierre Benjamin and augmented by actor Aiden Sims, often encircle the characters, sometimes supporting the action (they hand discarded golf clubs to Dubin and Bouldin to use as weapons in a failed assassination plot) and other times underscoring the action's ebullient emotions. When Little's Caliban is freed from his enslavement, they become his band of supporters to take back to their island. These young dancers are an essential element of the show's visual and moral impact, and they are fully and meaningfully engaged in the action.

The Tempest benefits significantly from Chris Guthrie's sound design, from the rousing storm's theater-rattling thunderclaps and roaring wind–already sounding as audiences enter the theater–to twinkling sounds as Ariel comes and goes on mischievous missions. Andrew Hungerford's lighting design builds the moods of various scenes. Robert Carlton Stimmel's projections enhance the storytelling with images of turbulent ocean waves and island greenery. They are shown on a pair of shredded sails, as well as a video screen on the face of the balcony viewable by theatregoers seated onstage. Costuming by Rainy Edwards and Kayla Cieslinski contributes to the characterizations, using colorful fabric remnants for the island's inhabitants (Prospera's magical cloak is a gorgeous patchwork of materials) and modern vacation wear for the shipwrecked players.

Composer Aleah Vassell's music adds further entertainment, some lighthearted and some heartfelt, especially a song Gregory performs reflecting Ariel's yearning for freedom. At the play's conclusion, Brott's Prospera leads a joyous dance, first with the Q-Kidz dancers following her movements, and then the other actors joining in one-by-one or two-by-two, with their own madcap reactions to the music. By the time all are assembled on stage in manic motion, the audience is on its feet, clapping and joining in the fun.

Shakespeare's enchanted Tempest is receiving an enchanting staging by Handy and her well-rehearsed cast, one likely to move audiences young and old–and to stick in memories for a long time to come. That's another kind of sustainability.

The Tempest, runs through May 4, 2025, at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Otto M. Budig Theatre, 1195 Elm Street in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, Cincinnati OH. For tickets and information, please visit www.CincyShakes.com or call 513-381-2273.