UNCW's gender-flipped 'The Tempest' evokes both 'Star Wars' and 'Gilligan's Island'

An enchanted island. Magic. A dispossessed noble. Creatures, charmed and cursed. The possibility of revenge or justice, and young lovers. The last play written entirely by William Shakespeare has it all.

“The Tempest,” occupying the Mainstage Theater at the University of North Carolina Wilmington through Sunday, Feb. 27, is also one of those classic plays that invites directorial license, and UNCW Theatre faculty member Robin Post gives in to those urges to inform this production with color-conscious, gender-flipped casting.

The story begins offstage 12 years before the titular storm instigated by Prospera (Addison Hamlet), the exiled duchess of Milan. Her title and lands usurped by her brother Antonio (Tanner Batts) in collusion with Alonso, king of Naples (Brenna Flanagan as Queen Alonza), Prospera and her then 3-year-old daughter Miranda (Cierra Peterkin) are set adrift in the Mediterranean Sea with only a few necessities and some of the duchess’s treasured books.

Mother and daughter find themselves marooned on an island once ruled by the witch Sycorax. There they find the witch’s son, Caliban (Jamie Lane), and the sprite Ariel (Elizabeth Montgomery), who come under the power of Prospera — who, we discover, has tapped into the island’s nature creating something beyond magic as we perceive it. Think Jedi master and The Force.

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When the ship bearing her enemies happens near the island, Prospera commissions Ariel to create the storm and fire that appears to wreck the vessel, yet spares its passengers and crew, scattering them across the island as the story arcs upward.

The drama of just how Prospera flexes her power stumbles slightly, lifted up in scenes with Caliban and the comedic pairing of Alonza’s alcoholic butler, Stephano (Zach Harris), and her jester, Trinculo (Malik Fowler). Montgomery, Lane, Harris and Fowler bring energy and commitment to every moment in which they appear.

Khori Talley as Alonza’s son Ferdinand joins Peterkin in the thankless job of falling in love on stage. But are they pawns in whatever game Prospera is playing, or is it genuine affection? I won’t spoil the ending.

Flanagan and Batts, with Ashley Jackson as Aloza’s murderous sister Sebastia, and Joan Reilly as the compassionate and loyal Gonzala are trapped in a version of "Gilligan’s Island," visually and dramatically – the allusion an apt one given Mark Sorensen’s costuming which evokes the '60s sitcom.

As if to further amplify the sense that there are two different plays on stage, Sorensen dresses Prospera as though she inhabits the "Star Wars" universe. Ariel and her companion spirits are in black-rag Goth ensembles.

Randall Enlow’s set is the most classic thing about the production outside Shakespeare’s language, its clever forest details and central structure on a turntable made even more striking by Alex Sargent and Thomas Salzman’s lighting scheme.

Nancy Carson’s choreography was elegant, done it appears, in collaboration with Montgomery and the spirits played by Maylen Malinsky, Angie Fasano, Maggie Castiglione and Abigail Hamm.

Contact StarNews arts and culture at 910-343-2343.

Want to go?

What: UNCW Theatre presents William Shakespeare’s "The Tempest"

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24-26 and 2 p.m. Feb. 27

Where: Mainstage Theatre, UNCW Cultural Arts Building

Tickets: $15; $12 for seniors, UNCW staff and alums; $6 for students

Details: 910-962-3500 or UNCWarts.universitytickets.com

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: UNCW's gender-flipped 'Tempest' boasts strong scenic, design elements