Sigourney Weaver as Prospero [Mark Brenner]

A FEW hours before seeing this show I was involved in a somewhat disappointing end-of-year discussion with colleagues about our ‘highlights of 2024’.

As the curtain fell on this rich and strange production, I felt like I had a new answer.

Sigourney Weaver is underwhelming as a largely motionless Prospero, who spends most of the night sitting in a chair, flatly declaiming lines like her former Alien spaceship’s supercomputer, Mother.

But you can’t take your eyes off Jamie Lloyd’s spectral showmanship strikes at the heart of the “rough magic” of what was to be Shakespeare’s last solo play, and dramatic farewell.

Forbes Masson’s Caliban lurches about Soutra Gilmour’s rocky and lunar-like set in leather pants, in a performance that at times made you sympathise with his enslaver.

But he absolutely nailed the big ‘be not afeard’ speech in a spell-binding delivery.

Mason Alexander Park’s Ariel flies about the theatre on high wires and is, like the rest of the show, ethereal and visually stunning.

Special mentions must go to Gavin and Stacey’s Matthew Horne as Gonzalo, and also Jason Barnett as Stephano.

Jonathan Glew’s editing must also be praised with the complex script cut down to a fly-by two hours that does not drag.

Just sit back, get lost in the magic, let the language wash over you. This is the deepest cleanse you will get in January.

The Tempest is perhaps best understood as a final conjuring by Shakespeare, a kind of melancholic farewell to the magical arts island he had dominated for more than 20 years.

The character of Prospero provided a fitting swansong for leading actors for more than 400 years since, but only men.

Now thankfully no one bats an eye-lid to see the lead role gender-reversed.

And it was genuinely moving to see the iconic “Ripley” – 45 years after Alien – in her moment under spotlight, soliloquising to the “midnight mushrooms” and “noontide sun”, pleading to be set free from our “indulgence”.

Grumbling critics could be heard plotting mediocre reviews at the interval. But there was a full-on standing ovation at the end.