Review: THE WINTER’S TALE, RSC
Photo credit: Marc Brenner
Whenever we journey up to Stratford upon Avon to see the latest RSC production of one of the Bard’s plays, we inevitably reflect on productions of the title that we have seen before. Kenneth Branagh’s excellent stage production of The Winter’s Tale, in which he played Leontes opposite Dame Judi Dench’s Paulina and Jessie Buckley’s Perdita in 2015, lives long in the memory. It is a tragicomedy, often listed as a romance. It deals with love and jealousy, and the final act has a mystical, magical air as it reunites the family but it is quite long (making the top ten of his plays in terms of number of original lines!)
Leontes falsely accuses Hermione of infidelity with King Polixenes leading to her death and abandonment of her newborn daughter, Perdita. Time shifts sixteen years, and Perdita falls in love with Polixenes’ son, Florizel, and is reunited with Leontes. In the most famous moment (spoiler alert), Paulina appears to bring the statue of Hermione to life to complete the family reunion. It is also remembered for its most famous stage direction in Act 3 “exit pursued by a bear”. Inevitably, productions can be defined by how they stage these two moments.
Director Yael Farber plays on the mystical ethereal context of the play under a large sphere, which is alternatively a grey orb, blood moon or the Earth above the action, and a water filled trough that frames the forestage as a sort of subliminal space between life and death where a character called Time passes most of the first act. There is a sharp contrast in the styling between each half; the first is drab, half lit, with a droning underscore, and the cast dressed in greys and browns are largely static observers of the speakers save for movement caused by the twin revolves. Leontes (Bertie Carvel) spends much of the act in grubby old tracksuit bottoms or his underpants, stripping him of any sense of status or authority. He asserts himself by raging and ranting while others mumble in the background in an overly melodramatic display. The second half bursts into life, as sixteen years pass, and we move to Bohemia where there is joy and dance accompanied by an onstage band of three. Time (a magnificent Geordie Trevor Fox) drives the storytelling with humour and wit, often directly addressing the audience and giving Shakespeare verse “jog on, jog on” a very modern feel. There is joyful dance around a glorious fire pit, romance flourishes, and relationships evolve and prosper.
The standout characters are Paulina (Aicha Kossoko) and Camillo (Raphael Sowole) who behave with integrity and loyalty throughout, and both speak their lines with a lovely rhythm and clarity, which earns our sympathy and brings a truth and hope to the narrative. John Light brings a quiet authority and presence to the role of Polixenes, the maligned King accused of adultery and renounced by his son, Florizel (Lewes Bowes).
Farber chooses to downplay the two iconic moments, avoiding the risk of an unwanted laugh but devoiding it too of any mystery or illusion. Madeline Appiah as Hermione dons a bear head and marches to the centre forestage for the famous Bear exit moment, and then stands on a plinth as an all too obvious human rather than a statue. Lit brightly from above, there is no moment of surprise when she awakens, though she holds the pose with admirable stillness.
The strong second act with emotional moments of reconciliation between father and son, father, wife and daughter, and the triumph of truth and romance over paranoia and jealousy, creates a joyous and uplifting finale. The modern costumes and setting just outside Tyneside connect the tale to us in its call for forgiveness, reconciliation and repentance, and allowing Time to heal our differences and seek new beginnings. In the world today, it is a message that today’s leaders need to hear. It reminds us that despite over four hundred and ten years since it was written, human behaviour is unchanged but the need for that change is greater than ever.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
The Winter’s Tale plays in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 30 August, with further info here.