By SHARON EBERSON
An event delayed, and delayed, and delayed again serves to build anticipation, so it was with an exhale of relief and exhilaration that Quantum Theatre was able to realize Karla Boos’ magical vision for The Tempest at Carrie Blast Furnaces.
There was a cruel irony to opening-night plus two more cancellations: poor air quality at the landmark, once the site of heavy industrial smoke, and nearby lightning making it unsafe to perform, when Shakespeare’s first direction is, “A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard. Enter a Shipmaster and a Boatswain.”
For the wreck that follows, the Quantum production takes full advantage of a towering wall, rusted steel looming above it, with a giant “sail” and thick ropes giving rise to a ship in a storm, when combined with the sounds of a roaring storm and the pitching, swaying movement of those aboard.
Shades of black and gray are broken when Tomé Cousin, a Pittsburgh treasure as a performer, director, choreographer and educator, appears as the sprite Ariel, unleashing flaming banners to ensure the fate of the ship.
The opening scene, beside an intimate, from-scratch outdoor theater, crystallizes the relationship among theatrical presentation, environment and ambition that have been the trademark of founder and outgoing artistic director of Quantum Theatre. The Tempest forms a Shakespearean trilogy of productions, with King Lear and Hamlet, and a partnership with Jeffery Carpenter, who played Lear, directed Hamlet, and here is the sorcerer Prospero, the vengeful, exiled Duke of Milan and father to the Miranda (Caroline Vargas Romero, a Chilean performer and recent Pittsburgher).
in The Tempest at Carrie Blast Furnaces historic site. (Image: Heather Mull)
While Carpenter’s Prospero schemes against those who have wronged him, delivered to his island exile by the shipwreck, Vargas Romero captures the charms of Miranda’s innocence, as a teen raised on a mostly uninhabited island, with her father her only human connection.
The ship has carried to the verdant island a group intertwined in Prospero’s past, just as the actors are part of Boos’ 35 years of bringing immersive theatrical experiences to Pittsburgh. Evil-doers Sebastian and Antonio are played by Quantum veterans Joe McGranaghan and Corey Rieger, and Jerreme Rodriguez, as the miserable creature Caliban, is in his sixth Quantum production. Mark Staley, as the repentant Alonso, King of Naples, previously appeared in Twelfth Night and Richard II for Quantum … and on it goes.
With the exception of the good Gonzalo (Julia Silverman), “Hell is empty and all the devils are here,” as Ariel observes, listening in on a planned betrayal.
The Tempest is Boos’ final production as the head of the singular company she created, and clearly, she wanted to be among friends.
As Shakespearean plays go, The Tempest isn’t clearly a comedy, although it does feature a fantastical world, reconciliation, forgiveness and a love story — Miranda and Alonso’s son, Ferdinand (Pittsburgher Joshua Brelsford, in his Quantum debut), fall for each other, Romeo-and-Juliet-style, with just one look.
Themes of vengeance, betrayal and enslavement, with a clear line of nature vs. nurture throughout, put The Tempest in more of a seriocomic category, and Quantum’s production leans into opportunities for laughs and gasps with gusto.
The comedy team of Dave Mansueto and Sandy York as the ever-inebriated Sephano and Trincolo provide a jolt of jocularity. York, with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Park’s Jennifer Tober and Adrienne Wehr, each play three or more characters, intricate to the dynamic pacing and fantasy world of Prospero’s island, aided in their transformations by Susan Tsu’s striking costume designs.
Shakespeare, in his impeccable wisdom, doesn’t let anyone off easy. Prospero’s hardened heart pushes him to do unto others as was done to him. He tortures Caliban and uses him as a laborer, and although he releases Ariel from a spell, he forces the sprite to do his bidding, all the while dangling the promise of freedom, and hesitating to deliver on it.
All’s well that ends well, as we get to hear famous Tempest lines in context, with purposeful and unforced — O brave new world, That has such people in’t, as Miranda is exposed to people for the first time; We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep, as Prospero’s enters a reflective stage.
Scenic designer Stephanie Mayer-Staley and the Quantum crew have created Prospero’s tree-house-like home and headquarters beside a grassy hollow, topped with a circular stage, in the shadow of a perfect tree, all dwarfed by the hulking metal remnants of the steel industry. Ethereal music composed and arranged by Daniel Nesta Curtis adds to the aura of fantastical about the setting, which was given a boost by Sunday’s crescent moon, as it made its appearance shining through steel girders.
Control of lighting and sound outdoors are never easy to achieve, and C. Todd Brown and Joe Pino, respectively, have done an amazing job coping with varied distances, or as performers move apace in and out of the staging area, or emerge as shadows against a giant screen.
As theatermaker and the world’s best-known bard, interpreter and oft-interpreted, Karla Boos and William Shakespeare are no “strange bedfellows,” but a dynamic duo. In her swan song with the theater company she created, Boos has combined the trademarks of her 35 years as Artistic Director: reimagining a Pittsburgh space as a theatrical setting; infusing music and dance into an immersive experience; working with like-minded local actors, designers and crew; and taking audiences on an outdoor journey beyond imagination.
Summer weather in Pittsburgh and the unexpected — Canadian wildfires, for example — have been risks Boos was willing to take to realize her vision. And aren’t we lucky to have been the beneficiaries of her boundary-pushing creativity.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Quantum Theatre’s production of The Tempest is at Carrie Blast Furnaces, 801 Carrie Furnace Boulevard, Pittsburgh, 15218, through August 23, 2026. Due to cancellations, there is an additional show on Monday, July 21, 2026. Notes: The Tempest runs almost two hours, plus a 15-minute intermission. Patrons with accessibility issues were driven to the staging areas on golf carts and given seats, while others walked along the gravel path and stood for the first scene. Port-o-johns are provided at entry, and beside the stage. Tickets: https://www.quantumtheatre.com/tempest/.
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