Engaging twist in the tale

10 April 2012

Erica Whyman's production of The Winter's Tale is a small miracle in black and white staging, which neatly captures the play's unpredictable spirit in the confines of the Southwark Playhouse. On a stage covered in salt, the cast evokes the clashing dramatic ingredients of tragedy, pastoral comedy and bitter romance that make this one of Shakespeare's most puzzling and potentially over-melodramatic works.

It is a plot so convoluted and so ultimately unbelievable that on re-reading the play you have to ask whether Shakespeare wrote it for a bet. Leontes's suspicion of his wife's adultery works - but to have her coming back to life after portraying 16 years of comedy presents a credibility challenge to both writer and director.

Whyman addresses the problem by setting up the initial scenes so strongly that it is impossible to shake off their savage melancholy. The production is set in an imaginary world either side of the First World War, catching the mood of pointless death and terminal instability.

While King Leontes reveals his suspicions of infidelity between his wife, Hermione, and his best friend, Polixenes, it feels as if the stage is gripped with a malignant jealousy. As Leontes, Fraser James captures the sense of mental pollution which spills into the language; at times he roars out monologues like a lion in pain, at others he is rigid as he spits his words at the stage.

Victoria Finney as Hermione and Lucy Briers as Paulina both put in excellent performances with their exhibition of strong and dignified womanhood. They are wonderful too as the frenetically frumpy Mopsa and Dorcas in the giddy pastoral scenes set 16 years later. The audience was so engaged that when Hermione came back to life, several tears were shed. Sadly your only chance to catch this sell-out Winter's Tale before it melts is to get a return.

The Winter's Tales

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