This 'Tempest' awash with greatness

'THE TEMPEST'

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

When: Through May 31

Where: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted

Tickets: $20-$70

Phone: (312) 335-1650

Great gifts are worth waiting for. True, it has taken Steppenwolf Theatre a full generation (31 years) to gather its courage for an encounter with Shakespeare. But its production of "The Tempest" -- breathtakingly imagined by director Tina Landau, hypnotically performed by her remarkable cast and magically interpreted by her team of designers -- is a wholly wondrous achievement. It illuminates the play on every level and is bound to live on in the memories of all those lucky enough to see it for years to come.

One of Shakespeare's late plays, "The Tempest" reveals the writer in the full embrace of a lifetime of experience of human nature, and as a poet in complete command of his characters' voices and souls. Landau could have devised a production that simply dazzled the senses -- and this one certainly does that with a thrillingly thunderous storm at sea, an eye-popping rite of spring that rains giant poppies, and all manner of clowning and acrobatics. But more crucially, she and her actors have dived headlong into the meaning of every word in this gorgeous play, and tapped into its most profound emotions. The true glory of this production is the way it tears at your heart, moving from rage, to impatience, to first love, to resentment, to disbelief and, finally, to forgiveness and freedom.

Every character and relationship is limned to perfection as Landau spins Shakespeare's tale of Prospero (Frank Galati, both furious and sweet, and at the top of his Prospero-like powers), the magician, scholar and deposed Duke of Milan. For 13 years this man has been living in exile on a barren island, with his adored and adoring teenage daughter, Miranda (Alana Arenas, whose simplicity and warmth bring a special light to the stage). Their only "companions" are men held in bondage -- the airborne spirit Ariel (the remarkable Jon Michael Hill, fleet, musical and immediate, who energizes every moment of this show) and the more brutish Caliban (shrewd, blistering work by K. Todd Freeman).

More "visitors" are washed up on shore, however, when Prospero uses his powers to have a great storm deliver his enemies. They include his ruthless brother, Antonio (the always formidable James Vincent Meredith); Alonso, king of Naples (Craig Spidle, spot-on as a powerful yet weak man); Alonso's brother (Alan Wilder) and a utopian-minded councillor, Gonzalo (a fascinating turn by Lois Smith), who, like Prospero, has found wisdom in age. Alonso's jester (Tim Hopper) and butler (Yasen Peyankov), supply the low comedy. And Alonso's sensitive son, Ferdinand (the wonderfully honest Stephen Louis Grush), clearly is Prospero's choice of a mate for Miranda.

The stage is mostly bare yet gorgeously animated, with set designer Takeshi Kata's gangplank-like ship/island making fine use of trap doors, ladders and steely cables and ropes that enable Ariel and three other spirits (silvery-voiced Emma Rosenthal, Eric James Casady and Miles Fletcher) to fly. James Schuette's winningly color-coded costumes, Jane Cox's lighting, Stephan Mazurek's projections and Josh Schmidt's fearsome sound and music all work as a seamless piece of ultra-modern magic. And special applause for verse coach Rob Clare.

In this play about characters undergoing "a sea-change into something rich and strange," the audience is not exempt. You will leave the theater altered.