The Theatre Practice’s first production of the season is William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, customarily identified as the Bard’s last play.

Austrian Director Martina Winkel, in her first collaboration with The Theatre Practice, utilises three actors, Chacko G Vadaketh, Jonathan Lim, and Yeo Yann Yann); and 1 shadow puppeteer (Tan Beng Tian), to play 10 roles in all.

Expect to see a lot of use of shadow puppetry in this play, inter-mixed with a generous amount of music, noises and exotic sounds.

Martina Winkel is a Founding Member of Theater Ohne Grenzen (Theatre without Borders and Boundaries), which is based in Vienna, Austria. It specializes in the genre of visual theatre, which typically combines actors, figures, objects, shadows, video and projections in performances.

With this background, it is thus no surprise that Martina decides to choose Shakespeare’s The Tempest as her first collaborative project with The Theatre Practice. For, this colourful Shakespearean drama is in itself a multi-sensory theater experience, interwoven with a great dose of stunning sights, sounds, music and magic.

The Cast:

Malaysian lawyer-turned-actor Chacko George Vadaketh (as Prospero, Antonio and Stephano), full-time theatre practitioner Tan Beng Tian (as Ariel – shadow puppet), Artistic Director of STAGES Jonathan Lim (as Caliban, Ferdinand, and Gonzalo), full-time resident artist of The Theatre Practice Yeo Yann Yann (as Miranda, Alonso and Trinculo)

The Designers:

Yo Shao Ann (Lighting Designer), who has designed for Action Theatre, Asian American Repertory Theatre (USA), Diversionary Theatre (USA), Singapore Repertory Theatre, The Necessary Stage, and Wild Rice, etc., and Helge Hinteregger (Sound Elements Designer), an established Austrian composer and musician.

In English with Chinese subtitles

22 – 25 April & 27 April – 1 May 2004, 8 pm

24 – 25 April & 1 – 2 May 2004, 2.30 pm

Venue: Guinness Theatre, The Substation. Tickets at* $20, $18 (Concession for students, senior citizens and NS men). *Exclude $1 SISTIC fee. Available at all SISTIC outlets. Booking hotline: (65) 6348 5555. Online booking: www.sistic.com.sg. There will be a post-performance talk with the director right after all matinee shows.

Content Contributor: Page To Stage Studio