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tempestuous(ness), or HIStory Is Told by the Victors

We employ one of Shakespeare’s more psychologically complex works (“The Tempest”) as a point of departure. 


Chloe Veltman, of SF Weekly and diverse other publications, reviews several Fringe shows, including tempestuous(ness)

2.30pm, The Garage @ 975 Howard -- tempestuous(ness): PUS' take on The Tempest might be rough around the edges. But the ensemble cast attacks Scott Baker's quite cleverly composed Wicked-meets-Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern-are-Dead-like script with such gusto that it's hard not to fall in love with both the actors and the ideas. I could have done without the limp "five-minute-Tempest" at the end of the performance. But I'll listen to Shakespeare's sonnets intoned by a middle-aged actor with a passion that belies his speech impediment any day.

The central issue we explore is why Sycorax, former mistress of The Tempest’s island, is missing from the Bard’s play. She's a witch, single mom, and female ruler of a magical place, commanding monsters and fairies, yet Shakespeare reduces this fascinating character’s life to a rambling expository monologue! What’s really going on? 


With tempestuous(ness) we let Sycorax tell her side of the story, while deconstructing the other stories beneath “The Tempest”.

Audience Reviews for our run at the SF Fringe Festival

Play: Tempestuous(ness), or, HIStory is Told by the Victors

Reviewer: chris wayan

5 Stars

Vivid, intelligent, hugely ambitious (and just plain huge for a Fringe show--nine actors, ninety tight-packed minutes). Mostly it succeeds, too. Scott Baker's revisionist story of Sycorax the witch, that peculiar offstage presence in The Tempest, is conceptually parallel to "Wicked", but not at all indebted to it. Strongly recommended for Fringers with brain cells. 

Play: tempestuous(ness) or HIStory is Told by the Victors

Reviewer: Gretchen

4 Stars

I enjoyed this play, which weaves together the (nonexistent in Shakespeare) backstory of Sycorax, and how she arrived on the island. It's a good story, well-acted. 

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