Caliban’s Rebellion is a dramatic adaptation of a work of Shakespeare in typical CenterStage Productions’ style. Drawing on The Tempest for inspiration Caliban’s Rebellion attempts to paint Caliban in a more forgiving light and give a slightly different view from the traditional interpretation. So, you may be wondering… is it any good?
That depends…
In the beginning…
…was the fool. And his friend the twit. In an refreshing change from “fairies” of the past this production has instead gone with the mentally challenged for laughs. And, thankfully, there are laughs… and not all of them cheap. Vishvamithra Ahangama gives a great performance as Trinculo, the court jester and Shehan Wijemanne does a decent job as Stefano, the butler and Trinculo’s partner in the ludicrous. This comedic duo becomes a trio later on in the performance when Caliban (Amesh De Silva) himself joins in the fun. The introduction is fun, fresh and after the obligatory Sacrifice of the Obnoxious and Inconsiderate Audience Member (by tickles and rabid dogs no less) the performance moves on to the initial bout of exposition. And then the tempest, which was surreal and wonderful with overtones of something I’d expect from Cirque du Soleil.
And then…
…things kinda bog down a little… which brings me to my first and major problem with this production. While not advertised as a musical this production does contain a lot of singing and some live music and unfortunately a lot of it isn’t really that good. A fair amount of the dance and musical sequences feel tacked on and superfluous, like they were added because they were expected or because nothing better could be found. The quality of the dance sequences varied from excellent to “Oh My God! We’re like… so drunk, dude!” with the latter often accompanied by a spontaneously planned conga line. Apart from reinforcing the production’s “Afro-Caribbean” flavor a lot of these sequences don’t really add much to the performance and some of them drag on to the point of frustration.
My other minor gripe was that there were very minor omissions in props, lighting and sound that would have made a huge impact on the atmosphere of the performance. The Jester could have used more (and louder) bells. There’s just a sense that he should jingle madly while he prances around on stage and it’s almost disappointing that he doesn’t. Then there’s the fact that Prospero’s whip is silent. The flagellation of Caliban would have been much more effective if the crack of the whip echoed off the stage. There were about a dozen of small discrepancies like this throughout the play that made it just a little less atmospheric.
The Acting
The acting ranged from good to excellent. Not quite up there with the best I’ve seen but good enough that I enjoyed the production. The accents stayed reasonably stable throughout the night and were usually understandable. Of particular note was Caliban’s accent which, on occasion, strayed from a moderately Jamaican rant to a more traditional Scottish brogue in a spectacular demonstration of incomprehensibility. Thankfully, actually needing to understand what he was saying wasn’t quite required so things worked out anyway.
In Conclusion
This production was big, flashy and energetic. It was also way over-the-top (as was to be expected anyway), moderately befuddling and just a few steps short of complete. Overall I liked this production more than the last one, but I still feel that there’s a few pacing issues that need to be sorted out before they can really shine.
Actors: Rozaine Cooray, Sajad Shabdeen, Rehan Almeida, Tanya Senaratne, Amesh De Silva, Anabella Brochard, Shehan Wijemanne & Vishvamithra Ahangama
16 Comments
Enjoyed your review, however, the play was called Caliban’s REBELLION, not Revenge.
Hehe. Dude! I’m like so drunk!
The things that happen at 2 in the morning, eh?
And TrincuLO not TrincuLA
You must have been very tired at 2 am 
Dammit. I’m pretty sure I checked the spelling on that!
Well, I’d gone through three reviews in 24 hours and pulled off a full work day before driving through a tropical storm and wading through a flood to get to the play. A little slack woman!
Awwww sorry
Especially about the tropical storm 
thank you for your review
and thank you for attending the performance…
sorry about the tropical storm though
we tried to spawn a few daemons to neutralize it but didnt work out… :p
photos of the performances are here -> http://www.kanabona.com/www/?q=calibans_rebellion_performances
sorry to spam on your wall…
CC – noticed that you have amended your typos… but you missed one – “The Tempest for inspiration Caliban’s Revenge”
i like the new CC better than the old one…
‘cos now i can actually read without abhorrence
so whatever you’re smoking / drinking (like at 2am) – keep consuming it
Well, I actually did enjoy this play and the effort that went into trying something different. There were times when things were bordering on turning sour and I would have had my say if they did. Thankfully it never quite got that far, and I’m sure I’ll be back in my old form the next time someone does.
I still feel that things wallow a little during some of the dance scenes and it hurts the pacing a lot. That and the fact that it’s difficult to figure out what’s going on from scene to scene makes it difficult to follow things. I had to read Jehan’s notes in the souvenir before I could quite figure out exactly what happened and just what they were trying to achieve.
Thanks for the help with the typos.
To be frankly honest, the whole play was a little over the top for me. Pehaps it was meant for an audience of higher intellectual capability than myself, but if it hadn’t been for the detailed account in the souvenir I wouldn’t have understood much. I couldn’t pick caliban’s accent or the butlers for that matter. Following shakespear normally is not the easiest. Add a jamaican/funny-english accent to it, and its all gibberish to me. The other element that really didn’t go well for me was general volume control. Punch theatre is well… ‘punchi’. Screaming like you’re in Lionel Wednt is only going to leave you with a deaf audience.
) ) good luck for the rest of the show and the future.
On the bright side, there were some awesome theatrical gimmicks, like the underwater scene, the birth of Caliban etc which were waaay cool. Arial, the jester and even Prospero gave stellar performances. the gymnastics were pretty inspired too. As with everything, it all boils down to personal taste, I guess. Looking to the future, I’d love to see Jehan & Co come up with not just shakespear adaptations but 100% original theatre, which is what they are really brilliant at. Anyways, thank you cast, crew and director for keeping the theatre loving audiences of colombo entertained. (however anal they may be
hey cc have you become someone else ? what IS it ? but this show was such a load of hogwash and you though it was good. what IS it ? have you fallen in love ? or is it time to see a doctor ?
sanju’s found a new keyboard
and now its time for it to see a doctor
hahahahaha
Watch out for “An Enemy of the people” in March
An Enemy of the people -> by?
Directed By Chamat Arambewela (the guy who played the news anchor in Puswedilla), his first venture as a director. Starring Rajiv Ponweera, Sashane Perera, Ashini Fernando, Sajith Amendra, Geethike De Silva
owl -> watched an enemy of the ppl
i thought it was good (except for the first scene where i didnt get a damn thing they said hehe)
there was a point there i wanted to get on stage and punch the bag guys
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