Enlarge (credit: Intel Corporation)
The Tempest is on at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England and runs until January 21. It will transfer to London’s Barbican Theatre in the summer of 2017. Tickets are on sale now.
On paper, the idea of bringing William Shakespeare’s The Tempest into the 21st century by using live-action performance capture technology to thrill theatregoers in the bard’s backyard is an exciting and daring move. In reality, Intel’s collaboration with Imaginarium Studios and the Royal Shakespeare Company is a little underwhelming.
Ariel—the sprite at the centre of The Tempest, played here with poise and determination by Mark Quartley—is the obvious choice to render as a digital character on the stage. Quartley, zipped up in a skintight, superhero-like jumpsuit, is described by the team behind the production as the puppeteer. Depending on how the ship wreak-strewn stage is lit, flesh-toned sensors can be seen through his motion-capture costume, showing the audience the very modern-day puppeteer’s strings. The person driving the tech—arguably the puppeteer’s puppeteer—is completely hidden from view, however, as they wrestle with a computer that is appropriately dubbed Big Beast.
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Source: Ars Technica – The Tempest review: Real-time digital avatar brews storm in a teacup