'The Tempest' Review Round-Up [3/5/13]
Source: Daily Mail
'Colin 'Merlin' Morgan gives a decidedly 'dainty Ariel' - think Star Trek Spock's camp nephew. I have not heard 'where the bee sucks' sung worse. Director James Herrin should insist he takes music lessons.'
Source: The Arts Desk
'This is largely the product of Roger Allam's delicately-handled Prospero - flightier even than Ariel in his shifting character.
[...] Colin Morgan's Ariel (pictured right) benefits from a rather overtly-pointed emotional subplot involving Prospero and their relationship, and while possessed of excellent comic timing his presence does rather dilute the more central emotional dramas.'
Source: The Stage
'Ariel is presented as a camp-looking spirit, dressed in a tight, lilac, feather-covered top, voluminous trousers and white boots. In Ariel, the impressive Colin Morgan is given ample opportunity to demonstrate his athleticism, with the sprightly imp frequently scurrying up walls and swinging by his arms to carry himself about the stage in an other-worldly, magical way.'
Source: Guardian
'But it's a major performance that shows Prospero to be a man of feeling who even sheds a furtive tear at Ariel's enfranchisement and who, in handing over his daughter, recognises that love sometimes means letting go.
Colin Morgan as a nimble Ariel and James Garnon as a Caliban who burps and spits in the groundlings' faces.'
Source: Daily Telegraph
'It is through the influence of the spirit Ariel that Prospero’s feelings become more tender.
Colin Morgan memorably captures Ariel’s mixture of the ethereal and the petulant.'
Source: Radio Times
'The Merlin star's nimble acrobatics and ethereal portrayal of Ariel neatly compliments the raging presence of Allam's sorcerer Prospero.
Prospero's playful spirit Ariel (Morgan) is never far from his side, carrying out his bidding and manipulating his defenceless subjects. For a bulky man, Morgan’s nymph-like movements are impressively acrobatic, as he silently gallops, creeps, swings, shimmies - and even cartwheels - across the stage with a camp, fidgety temperament that captures the ethereal essence of the production - not a million miles away from the eponymous hero he made his name playing in Merlin.
All in all, a simplisitc approach to Shakespeare's bewitching yarn that relies on some masterful acting, especially from Allam, Morgan and James, to add colour to Shakespeare's much-loved verse.'
Source: The London Magazine
'The pace of the production is skilfully developed, with Colin Morgan’s Ariel pivotal, injecting a spellbinding touch (in scenes of startlingly confident theatricality) and bringing home the play's concerns with freedom. Morgan is athletic and otherworldly, mellow rather than mischievous and played with an intelligent depth that builds up the fascinating relationship with his master Prospero: it is here that the understated quality of Herrin's production finds its power.'
Source: Official London Theatre
'Colin Morgan - reclaiming the enchanting powers he exercised in BBC series Merlin - is enthralling and ethereal as Prospero's servant Ariel, elegantly swinging off staircases and cartwheeling across the vast stage under the command of his master. Donning an exquisite costume formed of delicate pale wisps, the obedient sprite couldn't differ more from James Garnon's hideous Caliban, a deformed and terrifying creature who stumbles around the stage, bemoaning and burping at the audience.'
Source: The Upcoming.
'Colin Morgan's Ariel, is tall, graceful, and calm spirited. His expression is controlled and, with this, majestic and spellbinding. His natural height and obvious flexibility support these choices, but he has absolutely made this well known character his own and succeeded in doing so.'
Source: Time Out London
'Here’s a pitch for a sitcom: there’s this middle-aged bachelor - let’s have him played by Roger Allam from ‘The Thick of It’, say - and he’s also a magician, right? And he lives on a desert island with his precocious teenage daughter Miranda - maybe somebody from one of those Andrew Lloyd Webber talent shows to play her - an oddball fairy called Ariel - Colin Morgan from ‘Merlin’ is free now, right? - and a rape-happy goblin called Caliban. Hilarious, yeah? And then, uh-oh! Guess who drops in? Only his evil brother Antonio.
[...] And while he’s on stage, everything goes to plan - his slightly stilted repartee with Morgan’s somewhat confused Ariel is a hoot in particular'
Source: London Theatre
'Colin Morgan is an efficient, alien-like, frock-wearing Ariel.'
Source: Londonist
'No, we haven’t forgotten everyone else. Colin Morgan (of Merlin fame) plays his Ariel as a childlike naïf, navigating the set with parkour skills to represent his light otherworldliness.
As well as amping up the funny, director Jeremy Herrin has created some visual spectacles, too. When Ariel terrifies the shipwrecked Italian nobles he bursts onto the stage as a huge bird, ready to peck their eyes out. '
Source: What's On Stage
'Roger Allam's mellifluous tones suggest a man wholly in love with learning; there's a delicacy in his scenes with Colin Morgan's fleet-of-foot Ariel, a touch of tenderness. What's missing is the roughness: how did such a bookish man enslave Caliban and keep his Ariel in thrall?'
Source: London Evening Standard
'Roger Allam's richly bearded Prospero weighs every word exquisitely and Colin Morgan, as Ariel, swings from the scenery with acrobatic precision. But what's missing from director Jeremy Herrin's interpretation is a sense of magic.
[...] Colin Morgan, so familiar from the BBC’s Merlin, is poised and understated as Prospero's servant Ariel. The programme includes a credit for a "parkour trainer" - Chris Rowat - and it doesn't take long to work out who the beneficiary has been as Morgan swings from the scenery with acrobatic precision. Yet he also has moments of pale, ethereal stillness.'
Source: Curtis Brown Talent Agency
'Roger Allam stars as Prospero with Colin Morgan as his nimble spirit Ariel, in this magical tale about a ship wreck on an enchanted island.'