PATRICK MARMION reviews The Tempest: Tempest meets Alien... but Sigourney has no chance to weave her magic

The Tempest Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London Rating: Great excitement this week as Hollywood veteran Sigourney Weaver teleported into London to make her long-overdue West End debut. In The Tempest she takes on the role of Prospero, conventionally played by a man but which works perfectly with Weaver as a former female Sigourney Weaver teleported into London to make her long-overdue West End debut The play is a reimagined sci-fi version of Shakespeare’s late play, The Tempest Patrick Marimon: The set is out of this world, like a Star Trek studio from the 1960s Soutra Gilmour’s set is, however, genuinely out of this world. Like a Star Trek studio from the 1960s – the William Shatner years – it’s a barren, coal-black slag-heap barely illuminated by distant stars. Below these, Prospero’s spirit assistant Ariel, played by Mason Alexander Park, works his master’s magic as an air-borne glam rock star, wearing a blond wig, ruff and corset.