Stage Review: The Winter's Tale

The Winter’s Tale is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and given the chance, I will see any production of it, whether it be good or bad. It took only a few minutes into Sting & Honey’s production of the play to be impressed by the talented cast. These were actors who could carry off Shakespeare.

However, as good as they were reciting Shakespeare’s poetry and prose, I would have liked to see more emotion, real human emotion, from the actors, not just an elevated “Shakespearean” acting. The Winter’s Tale is about loss and recovery, of repentance and forgiveness, of jealousy and misaccusations. When Leontes accuses Hermione of infidelity, I wanted to see shock from Hermione. This accusation comes out of the blue to her, especially because Leontes' jealousy comes on so quickly, and Hermione is innocent, so she has no reason to think Leontes would suspect her of such a horrible thing. Hermione reacts as if she almost expects his accusation. She says that she is not the type of person who cries, but I wanted to see a physical reaction of anger, or some heightened emotion.

The last scene didn’t have enough emotion for me either. I wanted to physically see Leontes’ joy that his daughter, whom he thought was dead, was alive. I wanted him to have her at his side, afraid that if he couldn’t physically touch her that she would disappear. When it is revealed that Hermione is not dead, I wanted Leontes to get down on his knees to show repentance for the things he did, and for Hermione to take his hands and lift him up to show that she had forgiven him. I also wanted Hermione and Perdita to have a more joyous reunion.

All in all, I just wanted to feel more real human emotion from the main actors. Shakespeare’s plays are all about human emotion, and just because it’s Shakespeare, it doesn’t mean you can’t show that emotion just as you would if it were a modern play.

There were still many things I liked about the play.

One of the hardest parts for the actor who plays Leontes is to make his sudden jealousy believable. I think that Javen did a good job in this area. I paid close attention to him at the beginning of the play to see how he played that scene, and I think he did a good job.

I liked the reaction from Polixenes when he finds out about Leontes’ belief that Polixenes and Hermione have committed adultery. His response physically feeling sick, showing disbelief that his friend could believe he would betray him with his wife.

The large white tree, which was the only set piece on the stage, was stunning. It was a beautiful moment at the end when the tree is turned around to reveal Hermione’s statue as part of the tree. I liked the poses that the actors made throughout the play. I liked how they foreshadowed the important statue we would see at the end of the play.