The vogue for site-specific theatre is a mixed blessing: an unusual space isn’t enough to turn an ordinary production into something exceptional. This Jericho House staging by Jonathan Holmes plonks Shakespeare’s late romance in an acoustically treacherous medieval church, with scant dramatic justification.
Perhaps its recent tour of Israel and the West Bank saw it visiting venues to which it was more suited; here, it merely looks incongruous and half-baked.
Graffiti art featuring the star of David and Arabic script is strapped to pillars and an eclectic array of lamps and lanterns is strung across the vaulted ceiling. The live music features vaguely Middle Eastern singing, alongside lute, organ and recorder. Otherwise, there’s very little suggestion of concept or setting.
The performances are effortful and unengaging: Alan Cox is a youthful and curiously nonchalant Prospero; while Natalie Armin struggles to convince as both Prospero’s treacherous sibling Antonio and the drunken butler Stephano, here given sex changes to become ‘Antonia’ and ‘Stephanie’.
It’s an exasperating muddle with scarcely a spark of magic.