Last Updated on February 20, 2026
4.6 out of 5.0 starsDo you have favourite theatres in London? Sam Wanamaker is one of mine. It’s a tiny indoor theatre next door to the better-known Globe Theatre. Perfect, perhaps, for The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays and one that conjures up a magical world. It is lit entirely by candlelight; the Jacobean-style playhouse is warm and intimate, with stunning, richly detailed woodwork that, together with the close acoustics, creates a particular intensity.
I’ve lost count of the number of versions of the Bard’s final play I’ve seen, from the surreal Sigourney Weaver Tempest a couple of years ago at the magnificent Theatre Royal Drury Lane to, at the other end of the scale, Signal to Noise’s Edinburgh fringe show from the year 2000, staged in a friend’s living room, with an upturned table as the ship. The latter was a truly memorable performance and one that still lives in my heart for the intimacy and brilliant storytelling. As Guardian critic Lyn Gardner wrote at the time, ‘Theatre is an experience that you have, not a place that you go.’ Last night’s production of The Tempest at Sam Wanamaker was just that.
Tim Crouch, the director of the current production of The Tempest at Sam Wanamaker Theatre, doubles as Prospero. His interpretation makes Prospero both a magician and a theatre-maker. Lines from the play are spoken around groups of players, almost like a conversation, with moments when two players start to speak over each other, and one pulls back slightly, disrupting the flow. Was the audience member chastised for filming by Tim himself, an actor, or a paying member of the public? Unless I go again, I suspect I’ll never know, but that particular instance did interrupt play and seemed to unsettle the actors more than the audience. A kindly father but nevertheless an embittered and rather weary exile, this Prospero leans to forgiveness rather than vengeance. The intimacy of the Sam Wanamaker Theatre set a challenge for Prospero to conjure up his magic.
At the centre of this production of The Tempest, though, there is not one but four players, each a teller of the story: Prospero, Miranda, his daughter (Sophie Steer), Ariel (Naomi Wirthner), and Caliban (Faizal Abdullah). Wirthner’s Ariel has a calm, attentive presence, less an airborne sprite than a watchful figure rooted in the human world. As she sits knitting, her flamboyant costume contrasts with a performance that is, for the most part, restrained, a quiet intelligence that shapes Ariel as a thoughtful observer whose authority comes from patience and perception rather than theatrical display. Caliban, while clearly angered at his enslavement, is a taciturn, sensitive presence in contemporary costume. When angered, he lapses into the language of what I imagine is meant to be the island they live on. He truly belongs to the island and raises issues of colonialism most powerfully. Steer’s Miranda is emotionally open and physically restless, a young woman whose spirited responses to her world convey both a sense of wonder at the unfamiliar and a tactile rootedness in the immediate moment.
And then, there’s the shipwrecked players, all of whom are tucked away in the audience (and return there). Alonso, the King, played by Jo Stone-Fewings, is a gentle character dressed in what appears to be a cycling kit. Emerging from the lower gallery, he climbs through the audience with perfect charm and decorum. His brother, Sebastian (Colin Michael Carmichael), is a sleezier character, plotting with Antonia (Amanda Hadingue), Prospero’s sister, a businesswoman in a silk blouse, smart wool trousers, and gilt-heeled stilettos, to take control. Their conspiracy is played with cool intelligence, and the gendered shift reframes Antonia’s ambition without softening it, bringing a particular clarity to the power play. Antonia’s swan song, the moment when she storms out, exclaiming that she dislikes the play and will be writing to the Telegraph, draws a laugh through the entire audience.
Ferdinand (Joshua Griffin), the King’s son, is a particularly charming usher, wearing his ID throughout the show and clearing the stage of ice-cream cartons. But there’s an apparent chemistry between the two young lovers that made me almost disappointed when Miranda’s “O brave new world, / That has such people in it!” seemed more directed at the audience than at her love interest.
Trinculo and Stephano (Mercè Ribot and Patricia Rodriguez) appear like foreign language students, happily drinking their way through the events of the shipwreck and hoping that they can become rulers rather than servants. Like many of Shakespeare’s comic characters, there’s an innate wisdom in their reflections on society.
All of this is beautifully brought together by the charm of the Sam Wanamaker Theatre itself and by Rachana Jadhav’s fantastic set design and costumes. Think steampunk meets Southern Indian temple decoration with a smattering of Borneo, and you have the magical island of this Tempest. It’s colourful and bold, with fantastical details that evoke amazement. Add to that ethereal and beautiful a cappella vocals from around the theatre, performed by Victoria Couper and Emma Bonnici, and the scene is perfectly set.
I would always recommend a visit to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, not only for its beauty but for the way it encourages a different kind of theatrical attention. Tim Crouch’s Tempest may occasionally move beyond my own comfort zone, particularly in its self-conscious interruptions and its refusal of easy enchantment, but it ultimately succeeds on its own terms. It asks us to think about who tells stories, who controls them, and how power operates. This is not a Tempest that overwhelms; rather, it lingers, inviting reflection long after the candles are extinguished.
30th January – 12 April 2026
The Tempest
Sam Wanamaker Theatre
Shakespeare’s Globe
21 New Globe Walk,
SE1 9DT
Looking for something different? We also recommend Into The Woods, currently showing at The Bridge Theatre
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