DAVID Bintley freely admits that William Shakespeare’s final work was a pretty uneventful affair.

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s great choreographer says: “The thing about the play is that it is relatively simple… not much happens.”

And it’s true. All the protagonists are basically stuck on an island which by definition limits their freedom of movement and therefore action.

Mind you, this may not be a bad thing, because the relatively blank canvas left by the Bard of Avon is quite obviously a godsend for Bintley, who has happily filled the gaps in the tale with his spirited and gloriously headstrong choreography.

The result is the company’s sparkling homage to England’s greatest poet – for Bintley’s Tempest is indeed a tour de force, a whirlwind that swept across the boards at the Birmingham Hippodrome this week in a fury of unbridled magnificence.

Hastening this maelstrom along is the fabulous score by Sally Beamish, whose inspired music ebbs and flows like the tides, sometimes violent, at other times calm.

Royal Ballet Sinfonia conductor Koen Kessels does a fabulous job in steering the musical ship through the waters of the composer’s imagination.

Strident chords evoke the image of gigantic crashing breakers, the seas given life by Rae Smith’s ethereal designs, while Finn Caldwell and Toby Olie’s sound effects add to the general cacophony of seas in torment.

Riding the crests of these waves are the dancers themselves. Joseph Caley’s Ferdinand sweeps Prospero’s daughter Miranda (Jenna Roberts) off her feet in a tsunami of a pas de deux, but it is the superbly sinister Prospero himself (Iain Mackay) who really sets the tone as he hovers and swoops like some demonic albatross quartering endless expanses of salt water.

Then there is Antonio (Dominic Antonucci) who struts the stage with all the arrogance of a Tudor court favourite, ever willing to draw his sword in response to some slight, real or imagined.

Comic intervals are provided by the trio of fools – Trinculo (James Barton), Stephano (Valentin Olovyannikov) and Caliban (Tyrone Singleton). The trio’s contributions were, without any shadow of doubt, some of the high spots of the night, their buffoonery perfectly complemented by the orchestra’s coconut shell sound effects and a gloriously flatulent trombone that could have come straight from a 1950s Ealing comedy.

This was real silent movie stuff, with Singleton once again demonstrating his total command of any character acting that is required of him.

With its special effects, exciting flying sequences and breathtaking ensemble work, the company’s salute to Shakespeare in this 400th anniversary year of his death must surely go down as a high water mark in the Royal Ballet’s residence in the Second City.

The Tempest runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday (October 8).

John Phillpott