New Place Players
Tempest Tossed
An Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Craig Bacon
Directed by Janina Picard, Original chamber music by Flavio Gaete
June 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Casa Duse (16 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215)
Picture yourself at a lovely dinner party at one of the regal new homes along the newly completed Prospect Park at the turn of the last century. You retire to the parlor for an evening’s entertainment and a small troop of players, not unlike those who appear in Hamlet, begin with music and prologue. For the next 75 minutes, you are transported not only by the play but by the experience.
Shakespeare as well as being an amazing poet, was also a great recycler. He reworked known stories with his magic. It’s only fitting that we’ve spent the last 400 years recycling his work. This artistic freedom allows for a multitude of variations over time none less worthy than the one currently present by New Place Players. TEMPEST TOSSED is a chamber adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where the play's action mixes with an original live score by music director Flavio Gaete, as well as Butoh-inspired movement led by Yoshiko Usemi. We are introduced to Caliban’s mother, the powerful witch Sycorax, who in truth was a healer who just failed to heal a powerful noblewoman. The play and the characters presented are truncated, but they’ve honed in on a single storyline which works nicely.
All that the intimacy of the space limits in scope, it enhances in experience. Ariel will flit past you as she fulfills her duties. Prospero’s staff, likely a fallen branch from Prospect Park, is close enough to give you a splinter. There is no artifice about a player switching characters with the change of a cloak on an upstage coat rack. “In the very torrent, tempest and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it a smoothness,” an instruction not lost on this cast. It’s indeed that subtlety that allows these performances to work in such tight quarters.
Our Manhattan readers may be less inclined to make the trek to Brooklyn. But this is something they will not find there. For all the brilliance that happens on that island, it does not have an experience such as this. Hop on the rattler, hop off at Grand Army Plaza which houses the first public statue of Lincoln, walk a few doors down along the park, and step back in time to a completely fresh production steeped in a richly unique experience.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Katie Rosin.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on June 6, 2026. All rights reserved.
