Go! Feature

Bruce Cromer is simply full of Prospero these days.

Near the end of the last theater season, he starred in the Human Race Theatre Company’s production of “The Tempest” in the role he now reprises for the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival under the direction of Drew Fracher. He is also currently directing a production of “The Tempest” with a female “Prospera” at Wright State University where he teaches acting.

“It’s fascinating as an intellectual puzzle,” he said. “Shakespeare can be interpreted in so many different ways and Prospero is one of those roles you can never really get right.”

In contrast to his previous incarnation of Prospero, Cromer said that Fracher has him more obsessed with vengeance and has refocused his relationship with his daughter, Miranda.

“Drew is having Hayley (Clark, the actress playing Miranda) being a bit of a pain at times,” he said. “She fights back and doesn’t want to do what her dad says.”

One key difference between the productions is the way that Caliban, described in the text as “a savage and deformed slave.”

“Giles (Davies) is literally all over the place, kind of a scary, hop-toed kind of goblin,” Cromer said. “It’s an amazing transformation.”

Although “The Tempest” is often considered to be one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” it tends to get a lot of productions because of it’s “fantastical nature,” Cromer said, “which draws a lot of directors and design teams to the supernatural part of it.

“It’s fantasy schtick is just as funny as ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ but it is also a comedy, a romance and on top of it all you get this dark, vengeful side,” he said. “So you can look at it not as a problem  play, but as a good mix of genres."

Having previously appeared at Cincinnati Shakespeare festival in Edward Albee’s drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” Cromer is also slated to return next season in the title role of “King Lear.”

“I know that it’s a monster of a role,” he said. “Lear has such gigantic emotions of rage and grief and madness that I’m always amazed at the actors that chew into Lear. They have to go deep inside themselves emotionally.”

how to go
WHAT: “The Tempest.”
WHERE: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati.
WHEN: May 3-27.
COST: $18-$24.
MORE INFO: (513) 381-2273; cincyshakes.com.