Winter’s Tale At The Stratford Festival
Thank God for director Antoni Cimolino! His searing, lyrical, and ultimately shattering production of Winter’s Tale at the Tom Patterson Theatre is the best Shakespeare I’ve seen at Stratford – or anywhere else for that matter – in many years.
I came to this Winter’s Tale wondering if Cimolino could top Marti Maraden’s wonderful 2010 production at the old Tom Pat, of which I have fond memories. I needn’t have worried.
Winter’s Tale is expansive and sprawls across what looks a bit like the Greek Mediterranean before the Romans took over. Leontes (Graham Abbey) and Polixenes (André Sills) are the kings, respectively, of Sicilia and Bohemia. Childhood chums and a still a veritable bromance, they are torn asunder when Leontes, quite irrationally, decides that Polixenes and his pregnant wife Hermione (Sara Topham) are not only sweet on each other but that she is bearing his friend’s child.
Consumed with an irrational jealousy, Leontes orders his right hand man, Camillo (Tom Rooney) to murder Polixenes. Instead, Camillo tells Polixenes of Leontes’ mad jealousy and they both flee to Bohemia.
Hearing this, Leontes accuses his wife of adultery and throws her into prison, where she gives birth to a daughter. Hermione’s close friend Paulina (Yanna McIntosh), hoping to soften the king’s heart, brings the babe to him. He not only spurns the child but he also orders Antigonus (David Collins), Paulina’s husband, to expose the child in some wild place, a popular way of disposing of unwanted infants among the ancient Greeks.
Hermione is put on trial and Leontes sends to the oracle of Apollo for confirmation that his charge is correct. Apollo disagrees. Hermione is chaste, the child is his. Leontes is understandably gobsmacked and crumbles in remorse.
Paulina announces that Hermione has died. To make matters worse, Leontes’ only son and heir dies. Things look bleak for the house of Leontes.
Ah, but the child, now named Perdita (Marissa Orjalo) and abandoned on the rocky shore of Bohemia, is discovered by an old shepherd (Tom McCamus) who raises her as his own.
Flash forward sixteen years, when we find that Florizel (Austin Eckert), son of Polixenes and therefor Prince of Bohemia, has taken a walk on the mild side and fallen in love with Perdita, whom he assumes is a simple shepherdess.
Polixenes, as fathers throughout the ages have been wont to do, snoops about to find out what his son is up to, discovers this unacceptable infatuation, and responds with a venom that would do Leontes proud.
All of these plot threads come together and are resolved happily, which given that we’re talking Shakespeare here hardly qualifies as a spoiler.
What would be a spoiler would be to reveal the final moments of Winter’s Tale. It involves a device that is . . . what? Magical realism? A flight of poetic license? A sixteen year plot hatched by Paulina? Just plain weird?
Those familiar with the play will know whereof I speak. The rest of you can bloody well go see it.
Winter’s Tale is an odd play, one that has puzzled scholars and often confounded directors over the years. Just what manner of beast is it? It has been variously labeled a “late romance” and a “problem play.” It’s extremes of emotion and abrupt changes in tone can seem off putting to some. I think the answer to the conundrum lies in the title. It’s a “tale” and like all tales filled with flights of fancy.
If you are willing to come to the material afresh and give yourself over to Cimolino’s vision, you will be in for a thrilling ride and won’t concern yourself with academic trivialities.
The first half of Winter’s Tale plays like a tragedy. Leontes’ insane jealousy makes Othello’s look like a schoolboy’s pout. Hermione’s speech at her trial is one of Shakespeare’s most powerful
The second half, which unfolds in Bohemia, is largely a pastoral comedy filled with dance, music, and fanciful costumes.
There we meet one of Shakespeare’s most delightful creations. Autolycus (Geraint Wyn Davies), a name I suspect the Bard borrowed from Ovid, is a lovable trickster and thief, something of a cousin to better known characters like Toby Belch and Falstaff. Or maybe I say that because Wyn Davies has played both of them and played them delightfully using much the same bag of tricks he deploys in Winter’s Tale.
Much of the action in this half of Winter’s Tale takes place at a joyful sheep shearing festival that looks a lot closer to an idealized Elizabethan England than to the ancient Greek world.
In Cimolino’s hands, ably assisted by choreographer Adrienne Gould and composer Wayne Kelso, it is an absolute delight – a raunchy, priapic dance by a group of rustics sporting animal masks and rampant phalluses is just one of the highlights.
Indeed, virtually every aspect of Cimolino’s production is a delight, even the darker bits. But sets, costumes, lighting, and assorted razzle-dazzle are only the window dressing. The meat of any Shakespeare production is, or should be, the way in which it shines a light on the author’s unparalleled insights into the human condition. Indeed, critic Harold Bloom credited Shakespeare with “inventing” our modern conception of what it means to be human.
Here, Cimolino succeeds impressively.
Of course, he has the benefit of a superb cast, most of whom he has worked with in the past. Graham Abbey’s Leontes, who under the guidance of a less talented director could easily come across as ludicrous, is never less than compelling. He somehow manages to be sympathetic no matter how ghastly his errors of judgement.
Sara Topham is superb and her Hermione may be the best work she has done to date. Topham has in recent years strayed south of the Poutine Curtain to appear in mediocre Shakespeare productions. It’s gratifying to see her back where she belongs.
Yanna McIntosh is a fierce Paulina, a force of nature who can not only speak truth to power but humble power in the process. André Sills is a solid presence as Polixenes as is Tom Rooney as Camillo.
Marissa Orjalo is a perfectly adorable Perdita. She emerges here as one of Stratford’s most promising ingenues.
The physical production, as I have come to expect in Cimolino’s work, is sumptuous. Designer Michael Walton paints with ever-changing light across Douglas Paraschuck’s elegantly minimalist set. Francesca Callow has done a masterful job of creating costumes for a wide variety of characters in widely varying locales.
Speaking of which, Cimolino has chosen to include the character of Time, often cut, to frame the action and inform us of the flash forward at the top of Act Two. In the person of Lucy Peacock, in Callow’s gorgeous white robe and enormous white wings, she is a magical presence.
Winter’s Tale is replete with themes of remorse and loss, of what might have been. The final moment, in which Time appears with the spirit of Leontes’ son, reduced me to tears.
If you are one of those people who “have had enough with Shakespeare,” you owe it to yourself to grab a ticket to Antoni Cimolino’s mesmerizing Winter’s Tale and have your faith restored.
Winter’s Tale continues at the Tom Patterson Theatre through September 27, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Stratford Festival website.
Footnote: Some trivia: Two members of the present company of Winter’s Tale appeared in the 2010 production. Yanna McIntosh played Hermione and Tom Rooney was Autolycus. One of the great joys that repertory companies like the Stratford Festival hold for inveterate theatergoers is the pleasure of seeing great actors move from supporting roles to leads and from leads to supporting roles over the years, acquitting themselves admirably at ever step of their careers.
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