The Tempest

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At the start of 2016, Eliot headed off to the beautiful Spanish town of San Cugat on the outskirts of Barcelona to work with the French actor and commedia dell’arte expert Serge Ayala and the International early music ensembles Le Tendre Amour and Quatricina, to create a new version of The Tempest.

The rehearsal room became a playground of the imagination as Shakepeare's most magical play was moulded and shaped into a show for two actors playing all the roles and five musicians playing 17 Renaissance instruments between them, underscoring, elevating the action and reuniting Shakespeare’s text with it’s original music. Inspired by Commedia dell´arte in its use of masks and simple, rustic props and using elements of puppetry, vaudeville and storytelling we wanted our Tempest to charm and surprise just like the spirits in the play. 

The show opened the International Festival of Theatre in Malaga (the day after the city was hit by an earthquake) and staying true to the spirit of the play - it went down a storm! It has since played in France at the Théâtre de L´Oulle, Avignon and in the Palace of Versailles as part of Festival Mois Moliere. It was performed at the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxembourg as part of the British Council's Shakespeare Lives programme. It subsequently played at the International festival of theatre in Alaca, Madrid, the Teatro Real Coliseium Carlos III in El Escorial, the Auditori l´Atlàntida in Vic & at the Auditori Sant Cugat in Barcelona. The show was nominated for the Gran Premio de España de Artes Escénicas 2016.

Ensemble

Eliot Giuralarocca (Uk), Rachel Winters (UK), Eloise Irving (UK), Sasha Behar (UK), Serge Ayala (France), Katy Elkin (USA/Spain), Esteban Mazer (Argentina/Spain), Nicolas Muzy (France), Idoia Bengoa (Spain/Luxembourg), Juan Ullibarri (Spain/Luxembourg) 

Press Reviews

A simply magical experience!....The mies-en-scene created is a unique experience that lead the audience through a fabricated maze of absurdities to the playful splendour of the Renaissance...Yesterday the Tempest was the theatre event that we had long been waiting for and it has made Malaga a better city 

Pablo Bujalance, Malaga Hoy ★★★★★

Eliot Giuralarocca and Serge Ayala created the story, with their entrances and exits, varied accents, voice changes and gestures…It was fascinating to see this process, so agile and well-defined, alternating between the many characters they played…One part that was truly important for the process - and perhaps even more striking - was that performed by the early music ensembles. They were there to accompany and give character to the scenes and their various spaces, even including recreating a mute conversation. The profusion of instruments from the period, combined with the classic elements to create theatrical effects, resulted in a certainly remarkable and magnificently incorporated performance. 

Paco Inestrosa, La Opinion ★★★★★

A theatre company with an international cast and two musical ensembles used text united with period music and succeeded in a magical distillation of this grandiose Shakespearean drama…this was a truly  excellent interpretation, both in the dramatic and comic passages. 

Oscar Romero, SurAt ★★★★★