Trust me when I say that it’s a lot funnier than it sounds as Niles manages to go on and set the apartment on fire. It’s three or four minutes of comic genius ahead of the main production that’s still much talked about during family ironing time. And so to The Tempest, that also opens before it begins with a beautiful piece of theatre as Stephano (Trevor Cooper) and Trinculo (Toby Sedgwick) arrive on the deck of the ill-fated ship to mix some cocktails for the shortly arriving men in Burton suits who have an Italian ‘family’ look about them  | | Pete Postlethwaite and Samantha Robinson |
I hardly notice the auditorium fill up around me as I’m transfixed by the silent comic interchanges between these two characters. And then it begins and before we know it the storm is upon us and we are shipwrecked on an island inhabited by Pete Postlethwaite (Prospero) in his dressing gown, but no less the figure of a man with magical powers, and his daughter Miranda (Samantha Robinson), the sweet, innocent virgin who has never seen another woman or other men apart from her father. Is it any wonder that she immediately falls in love with the first castaway she cops eyes on, Ferdinand (Oliver Kieran-Jones). Director Greg Hersov has chosen a modern setting on a minimalist scale for this classic Shakespeare and it works so well at the Royal Exchange, although I can’t bring to mind a Shakespeare play that hasn’t worked well there. During the interval I asked my fifteen-year-old daughter what she thought: “I really like the way they’ve done it, it actually makes more sense like this”. Praise indeed from one so young. The pre-publicity hype about Postlethwaite’s Prospero was worthy. He didn’t fail to deliver and with some exceptional supporting roles, namely from Simon Trinder (Caliban) and Steven Robertson (Ariel), this production will quickly take its place on the list of Royal Exchange classics. The Tempest is at The Royal Exchange until July 7 2007. | 
