Against a stunning outdoor backdrop of the UCSB Campus Lagoon, Naked Shakes’s production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest truly embodies the rudimentary aesthetic of the company. Director Irwin Appel consistently presents Shakespeare with a liveliness that makes these plays actually feel like play. The Tempest adeptly balances the reality of performing in an open, public space with the imaginary visualizations the performers can conjure. Despite planes buzzing and joggers plodding, it’s easy to get whirled into the intrigues of this robust production.
The Tempest plays the Shakespeare hits: a whirlwind romance, buffoonish drunks, usurped power, and a big, dramatic storm. The shipwreck-chic costuming (by Diana Mateescu and Pesha Rudnick) feels like a concise fashion collection, perfectly on brand with the beachy, California backdrop. Staging (by Christina McCarthy) is beautiful and imaginative, and Jim Connelly provides a small orchestra of mysterious, whimsical “enchanted-island-castaway” ambiance.
Performances were strong in this all-student production. Veda Arndt-Schreiber and Claire Ruberg are simultaneously unique and in sync as a single character, the malevolent spirit Caliban. Ariel is represented by a group of five ethereals sharing the role, creating interplay and overlap that makes the island spirit feel ubiquitous, more atmosphere than person. Besties Stephano (a drunk servant, played by Vivian Oxley) and Trinculo (court jester; also drunk, played by Andrew Zhang), raise the bar on comic relief: While much of the play lives outside of time, Stephano lurches in like a skeezy club promoter on vacation in Bermuda. Why not? The comic relief is designed to give the audience a break in the mounting tension of the play, and whatever was hilarious in the Elizabethan era may not hit the same in 2025 — why not update the humor? These clowns treat the audience to a more authentic experience of the intended levity.