The Winter's Tale

Synopsis

'Pray you, sit by us, and tell's a tale. Merry or sad shall't be? As merry as you will. A sad tale's best for winter.' A tale of passion, jealousy, fantasy and fairytale, the play charts the transition from winter to spring, tragedy to comedy, and revenge to romance. It is the story of high adventure where an angry King falsely accuses and discards his family to his later regret

Our Review:

16 June 2005

After The Tempest and Pericles, the Globe is tackling yet another of Shakespeare’s later romances with this classic study of pathological jealousy. And for the first time this season, the Globe offers us an Elizabethan dress production, something of a speciality of the theatre.

This is a play of great contrast that always throws up a problem to directors. How does one balance the tragedy of the first three acts with the comic, pastoral scenes so that the play makes a convincing whole? Director John Dove answer is to greatly reduce the time in rural Bohemia and instead quickly move from the first half’s tragedy to Polixenes’ anger against Perdita and Florizel.

This decision also draws attention to the resemblance between Polixenes and Leontes. It’s not just in their youth that they were “as twinn'd lambs”. Wearing clothes that look like photo negatives of each other, Polixenes’ treatment of Florizel is just as ill-tempere...

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Latest User Review

81.134.165.4) - 20 June 2005:

These 'traditional practices' productions are always the best things The Globe does and this is no exception. Beautifully spoken, gorgeously costumed, and with uniformly excellent performances, it's another deeply rewarding visit to the venue which has made us all look at Shakespeare differently....

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