Stormy Sydney seas for Shakespeare’s The Tempest

What’s the one Shakespeare play you wouldn’t choose to perform on the deck of a century-old, three-masted wooden tall ship on Sydney Harbour?

Surely it would be The Tempest - unless you are prepared for the audience to be seasick?

Sontaan Hopson of the Come you Spirits theatre group, rehearses Shakespeare’s The Tempest during storms in Sydney on Monday. Credit: James Brickwood

So spare a thought for Sontaan Hopson, the actress playing Ariel in what is believed to be the first nautical Shakespeare production ever staged on a moving vessel passing the Opera House.

On Monday morning she was up a mast of the Southern Swan re-enacting one of the scenes for Sydney Morning Herald photographer James Brickwood when that freak thunderstorm came flashing through. Winds of over 100 kilometres an hour battered the Baltic barquentine.

“The first few photos were in the dry, while we got the wing action right,” she explains.

“Suddenly, I could feel the energy level shift. I could hear thunder and felt sprinkles of rain. I said, ‘James, I think it’s going to rain’.

“Then came the lightning and it started pouring. It was the funniest photo. I haven’t felt a rush like that in so long. There was such beautiful excitement and energy,” she said.

Her fellow actors said it was as if Ariel had conjured up a tempest as Prospero does in the play the Bard is believed to have written around 1611, five years before his death.

It starts with a shipwreck devised by the magician Prospero, a former Duke of Milan exiled on a Mediterranean island with his daughter Miranda and desperate to exact revenge on his usurpers.

His cunning plan is advanced by Ariel, a sprite, and Caliban, a monstrous ogre. In Shakespeare’s day, both would have been played by males (as would Juliet, Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth since women weren’t allowed on stage).

Actress Jo Bloom performs the character Caliban in The Tempest on Sydney Harbour. Credit: James Brickwood

So meet Jo Bloom -co-founder of the Come you Spirits theatre troupe, mother or stepmother of five boys under ten - who plays Caliban: the ugly ogre afloat.

“I play Caliban as a real earth mother,” Bloom explains.

“Our interpretation is very much about the colonisation of Mother Earth and what humans have done to it.

“By the end, it is a story of redemption, with Prospero realising he can’t control Mother Earth or young people like Miranda and Ferdinand falling in love.

“And if he tries, it’s only going to end in misery.”

Bloom - minus the seven arrows in her Caliban costume - is racing after rehearsals to pick up one of the boys from school.

Did Shakespeare ever reference the daily drama that is getting children to and from school?

Yes, she says, quoting the Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It: “The whining schoolboy with his satchel”, as if it’s a regular rendezvous.

Bloom and Charlie Mayer, her partner and co-founder of Come you Spirits (it’s a quote from a Lady Macbeth speech), are Shakespeare tragics - though The Tempest was written as a comedy.

The troupe was formed earlier this year with an ambition to distil Shakespeare’s classics to the essence, with just four performers in an outdoor setting.

Each play has been distilled to a maximum of 90 minutes.

Shakespeare’s Globe was open to the elements when his classics were first staged.

Each of these venues - apart from Hickson House Distillery in The Rocks - has been chosen for its outdoor ambience: Cooper Park in Woollahra, the Haven Amphitheatre in Castlecrag, and Marvell Hall Gardens in Byron Bay.

Plus, of course, the Danish-built Southern Swan that is capable of fending off icebergs if any should appear during a tempest on Sydney Harbour.

“Performing outdoors means we can incorporate the natural environment,” Bloom continues.

Sontaan Hopson who is performing the character Ariel. Credit: James Brickwood

“As Titania in Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, for example, I climb a tree and jump over a creek.”

Both Bloom and Mayer - a former officer in the British army - have considerable experience performing Shakespeare.

However, the troupe may be branching out in 2023.

“Shakespeare is our first love,” Bloom says.

“But we have been approached to do a Greek tragedy next year.”

It’s the classic repertoire that really speaks to us, with all that magic and ancient lore in the written texts.

“Each of the plays in this season - apart from The Tempest, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth - is accompanied by an original “soundscape” by Byron Bay composer Brandon Read.

Mayer plays the older male parts: Macbeth, the friar in Romeo and Juliet and Prospero in The Tempest.

“He’s 52,” says the younger Bloom. “But he’s very spritely for his age!”

Sydney season opens this Saturday, December 17- January 15. Byron Bay season, January 24-29. comeyouspirits.com