Critique I: "The Winter's Tale"
By Grace Pippin
In Act I of "The Winter's Tale" Shakespeare, without explanation, infects Leontes with virulent jealousy that begins a downward path of destruction affecting everyone at court. The downward momentum of this rapid deterioration is later corrected, and his play swings upward with a positive motion. Structurally, "The Winter's Tale" has been divided into two parts, disintegration and regeneration; the center of which is the birth of Perdita.
When the curtain rises, it reveals a ballroom dance. The women present are elegantly dressed in twentieth-century gowns, and the men are dressed in formal wear. This was a scene to behold. The audience is quickly introduced to the main characters: Leontes, king of Sicilia, his queen, Hermione, and Polixenes, king of Bohemia. In this scene Leontes is disappointed that his childhood friend, Polixenes, is departing Sicilia. Leontes makes a perfect transition from a loyal and trusting husband, to that of a homicidal tyrant. Nothing Leontes can say persuades Polixenes to stay, so he encourages his wife to intercede. Hermione attempts to prove her value to her husband by accepting this mission. The actress does a convincing job when she uses her charm and wit as her main tools in this undertaking. Leontes, seeing his wife and closest friend together, imagines adultery. Polixenes reaction to the offensive accusation by his bestfriend is disbelief and fear for his life - and the actor makes a fine job in portraying a king preoccupied with survival. Camillo's honor demands that he notifies Polixenes of the intended assassination, and together they flee to Bohemia.
Hermione, pregnant and in prison, delivers prematurely a baby girl. Almost immediately, frail Mamillius dies stricken with grief. Paulina, Hermione's loyal friend, takes the infant Perdita in hope that she will soften Leontes' heart. It is Paulina's dynamic character that serves as Leontes conscience for sixteen years. She even gets the king to promise he will not marry without her approval of his choice. The actress portraying Paulina gives a remarkably believable performance.
In Sicilia Hermione is exonerated by the Oracle of Apollo, but Leontes refuses to accept the decision. Leontes blasphemously rejects the Oracle and maintains that Hermione is an adulteress. When Mamillius dies, Leontes then realizes the seriousness of his irrational accusations and repents. Immediately, he is notified of Hermione's death. The king is crushed by this avalanche of personal tragedy and loss, and for the next sixteen years Paulina is his conscience; she is there to remind him of his guilt. Meanwhile, commanded by the king to leave Perdita exposed to the elements, Antigonous arrives in Bohemia. However, it is Antigonous who faces his own fate by dying at the claws of a bear. But Perdita, abandoned on the beach, is saved and taken in by a shepherd and his son.
Time enters and we are notified that sixteen years have past. Time is introducing a change in mood, a positive upswing. The remainder of the play restores and heals the tragedy and loss of the first three acts. Autolycus, the rogue, provides a transition by energizing the fourth act with necessary comic relief. The actor in the role of Autolycus does a superb job as an earthy rogue, and his appearance is an immediate relief to the audience. Up until now, Shakespeare has exposed us to the turgid tragedy of court. At this point, the heavy downward momentum is corrected - and spring is here. It is now time to shear the winter coats of the sheep. Appropriately, the peasantry have planned their annual festival celebrating the shearing of the winter coats of wool. It is in this act that we are introduced to Florizel, son of Polixenes, who behind his father's back courts Perdita; together the couple epitomize spring and renewal. However, Polixenes disapproval of this union forces Florizel and Perdita to flee Bohemia with the help of the homesick Camillo and seek Leontes' protection in Sicilia.
All the characters in the play are united once more in Sicilia.
Leontes discovers that Perdita is his long lost daughter. Polixenes and
Leontes, friends since childhood, are reunited and approve of the union
of their children. Clever Paulina takes advantage of this reunion to
invite everyone to her gallery for the dramatic unveiling of the statue
of Queen Hermione. Everyone is astonished, including the audience, as
the statue comes alive. This final scene completes the circle, from the
tragic losses of the first three acts to the uplifting vitality of the
last two acts.
Theater USF in conjunction with The British International Theater Program's presentation of The Winter's Tale was a delightful experience. I enjoyed watching first hand Shakespeare's play, recreated in a medium, in which I could comprehend. This particular production of "The Winter's Tale" was set around the time of the Dust Bowl era. The costumes and sets were all given a modern appearance so the audience could better relate to the play.
As I entered into the theater, greeting the audience was a large painting, which covered the stage. The depiction was of a book that was half covered in the snow, it gave a vivid recollection of the setting. Looking at the book I noticed it was opened to a page. Upon that page I was able to make out the words "The Winter's Tale", the story to be told on this night. The large painting was a very subtle reminder to the era (calligraphy writing was a medieval handwriting technique used) the snow coincided with the actual time within the context of the story (the cold winter snow).
The acting company new, that attention to detail would lend to credibility in each scene. As the curtains opened, a scene in which Sicily was having a grand ball in honor of Bohemia, was upon the stage. The chandelier hanging, from the ceiling, and the family portrait, hung on the back wall, gave the ballroom a more lived in appearance.
The nursery room, in which Leontas confronts Hermione, was painted in bright colors as it should be. Large, brightly colored, alphabet blocks were placed strategically for use within that scene . The prison cell, where Hermione was sent, was equipped with modern day surveillance cameras.
The trip taken, by Dion and Cleomenes, to visit the Oracle of Apollo was quite amusing since they used an jet airplane. The message, Dion and Cleomenes, carried back was vacuumed sealed in a cylinder, but was written on parchment paper.
The special effect used to project Hermione's face on a wall behind Antigonus, while he was explaining his dream about Hermione, helped to lend mysticism to the scene. The visual aide and audio of an angry bear gave the audience a better understanding as to what became of Antigonus.
The interesting part of this production of "The Winter's Tale" was the passage of time. In the textual version of our book. Time is mentioned as an entity without description, which would be left up to our imagination to create. In this play Shakespeare, dressed in his finest Elizabethan garb, walks on stages and recites the passage of time. It is unfortunate, but I found this scene to be disappointing and that it was lacking something.
The entire scene, depicting a festive occasion in Bohemia, turned out to be more comical than the textual reading in the book. The sheep shearing festival was brought about as if the audience had been invited to a hoe-down. The entire festivities in the barn, with the hay and wagon, was believably enjoyable. At any given time the audience could almost expect some cows, horses, or chickens appear.
As a grand finale to the festive occasion in Bohemia, a tornado had been created on stage. The tornado was used sweep the audience back to Sicily and as a side note gave the cast time to change costumes and scenes.
The finale for the statue of Hermione coming to life was fantastic. Hermione rising from beneath the stage, dressed all in bright red, added to the climax of the story. The drama that unfolded as Leontes and Perdita watched the statue come to life was very moving. The actress, who portrayed Hermione, made the finale even more emotionally charged by weeping real tears.
After watching the actual production of Shakespeare's play, I was better able to place into perspective some of the different scenes, which I read. The interpretation of the text within the book versus the actual play, with live characters and emotions, was different. Observing the actors reading the lines, and how the lines often times were almost simultaneously read was something the text in the book could not justify. When the actors did this the story made more sense, than when it was read in textual format in the book. The characters could never have come to life in this fashion, if it were not for the superb range of emotions that the actors brought onto the stage.
In this instance visual affirmation was more powerful than textual reading of �The Winter�s Tale�. I can only wonder as to have been able to have seen the "The Winter's Tale" as Shakespeare intended it to be, set in his time with sets, costuming and acting it must have been something to witness.