A Russian Revelation

Rarely has a production of The Tempest been as bleak, powerful and urgent as this. The drama is often billed as Shakespeare’s last play, a retiree’s lyrical contemplation of the need for redemption and reconciliation in the later ages of man. The more we learn about Shakespeare’s later career as a collaborator with John Fletcher, the less this artful chronology stands up to scrutiny. But even though productions of The Tempest have become successively dark, in line with wider theatrical trends in the past 60 years, few so completely destroyed any hopeful vision of a better world to come as Cheek by Jowl’s brilliant Russian language production, playing at the Barbican Centre until 16th April.



This heartbreaking, breathtaking bleakness is one of the most obviously Russian elements of the production. This is a drama of raw Slavic emotion – one almost expects a suicide on stage, followed by an anguished cry of yearning for Moscow, or in this case, Milan.