He cuts quite a figure, this sorcerer-duke: the seaweed cape flowing from his shoulders, the ram’s-head staff he carries. But it’s the straw top hat, adorned with a tiny skull and tied festively with dried grass, that makes Ron Cephas Jones’s lonely Prospero look island magnificent.
In Classical Theater of Harlem’s “The Tempest,” Hispaniola — the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share — is the place Prospero has ruled by magic since he and his daughter, Miranda, washed up there. All shimmery crags on a bed of deepest blue, the island has spirits in abundance, foremost one tricksy Ariel (a fine Fedna Jacquet), in streaming white and gold (the costumes are by Rachel Dozier-Ezell).
Directed by Carl Cofield and staged outdoors on a steeply raked set (designed by the twins Christopher and Justin Swader) at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park… READ THE FULL REVIEW AT THE NEW YORK TIMES WEBSITE