NOLA Project’s retelling of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ casts a spell over its unlikely venue

It can be a little tough finding NOLA Project’s newest outdoor theater space. Located just off Lafitte Greenway in Mid-City, the former vehicle inspection station is a tangle of concrete, steel, and earth-colored brick. It’s an unlikely setting for the company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s lush island fairy tale “The Tempest,” but with a bit of stage magic and audience imagination, the creative cast and crew deliver a charming take on the bard’s ode to reconciliation and forgiveness.

Adapted and directed by company member James Bartelle, the play is billed as “Shakespeare’s Tempest, Reimagined.” The title might suggest an overhaul of the classic, but the adaptation adheres pretty closely to the original, boiled down to a tight 90-minute run through of the play’s intertwined plot lines. Shakespeare’s text is partially supplemented by Bartelle’s own pen, though the meter and style are so effectively imitated that most ears will hardly register where one writer ends and the other begins.

The show’s biggest success is its staging, as Shakespeare’s enchanted island paradise is brought to life by a strong energetic ensemble and animated with original music, lively choreography, and expressive costumes.

As Prospero, the exiled nobleman and spellcaster, Monica R. Harris has a strong command of both the stage and the script. As the powerful center of Shakespeare’s storm, the vengeful outcast wields supernatural authority over the island’s sprites, beasts, and a gaggle of recently arrived shipwreck survivors, among them the political enemies that banished Prospero and his daughter Miranda years ago.

The shipwreck sets into motion the play’s three knotted subplots: Prospero’s matchmaking between Miranda and the king’s son Ferdinand; a staged overthrow of the despondent king by Prospero’s brother Antonio and his co-conspirator Sebastian; and the comic relief of two bumbling drunks, Trinculo and Liana, devising a siege of their own with the help of island monster Caliban, who seeks to break the bond of harsh servitude to his master Prospero.

The truncated script means the plot unspools predictably by the numbers and is heavy on exposition, though the abbreviated run time allows for a brisk pace that hums relentlessly forward to the play’s neatly resolved conclusion.

The cast is uniformly impressive, including an ethereal turn from Leslie Claverie as the island spirit Ariel, whose lilting voice enthralls and captivates in both song and speech. As Caliban, the native beast, Keith Claverie rasps and growls in his bitter subjugation, craftily costumed with horns and animal pelt. And Ashley Ricord Santos and Kristin Witt, as the hapless wine-drinking duo Trinculo and Liana, infuse some much-welcome giddy foolishness into the political machinations of the play’s primary plot.

Behind the scenes, choreographer Monica Ordoñez and composers Alexis Marceaux and Stephen MacDonald contribute to the sprightly allure of the production, as do lighting and costume designers Joan Long and Megan Harms.

Given the pastoral nature of the play’s vibrant seaside setting, the stark industrial venue is a liability to be overcome, a contrast to NOLA Project’s past whimsical productions under the night sky in the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden. But the company meets that challenge head on, giving audiences a succinct and straightforward retelling of “The Tempest” enlivened by a talented troupe of theatermakers who effectively harness the power of Shakespeare’s storm.

‘THE TEMPEST’

WHEN: Through May 25

WHERE: 436 N. Norman C. Francis Parkway

TICKETS: $38 (upgrades and student discounts available)

INFO: nolaproject.com