Pictured: Eric Hissom and Suzanne O'Donnell

    The Winter's Tale

by William Shakespeare 

directed by Richard Width

Performed in the Goldman Theater (118 Seats)

If you liked last seasonon;s production of Hamlet in the intimate Goldman Theater, you'll love our first production of this unique tragicomedy. The first act opens to the harsh cries of winter, as jealous Leontes accuses his wife of treachery. With act two comes spring and jealousy gives way to forgivenss and the joys of dancing, singing, springtime, festivals and young love!

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Eric Hissom, Kareem Bandealy, Amanda Schlacter, Paul Bernardo

REVIEWS

A masterful meld of darkness and light!

Excerpts from:
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
By Elizabeth Maupin | Sentinel Theater Critic
Posted November 26, 2002

A sad tale's best for winter," a little boy tells his mother near the start of the enchantment that goes by the name The Winter's Tale.

But the melancholy that runs through a play William Shakespeare wrote in the winter of his career soon turns to jubilation at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival's little Goldman Theater, where director Richard Width's production of The Winter's Tale deserves to win legions of converts to this remarkable play.

What was cold and heartless turns warm and even wondrous in this story about a man who loses his faith and the women who show him how to find it. Here the festival treads lightly over the fragile balance between tragedy and comedy, despair and exultation. By play's end you feel you've really lived.

The Winter's Tale came almost at the end of Shakespeare's long career, after the sprightly comedies and the great tragedies and just before The Tempest, the final masterpiece to which The Winter's Tale bears more than a passing resemblance. In both plays, a powerful man brings terror to those he considers his enemies; in both plays he eventually finds the way toward forgiveness, and he discovers that redemption leads to reconciliation and a more satisfying kind of love.

The Goldman Theater stage looks elegantly icy at the start of Width's production: Scenic designer Bob Phillips has devised pale blue panels figured with barren branches, and even the throne of Leontes, king of Sicilia, is crowned with branches that seem to have frozen and died. There Leontes and his wife, Hermione, are entertaining his lifelong friend, Polixenes, the king of far-off Bohemia. And there Leontes decides -- all of a sudden, and for no rational reason -- that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair.

That the enraged Leontes should try to destroy just about everyone in his orbit will surprise no one who has heard tell of Othello or Macbeth. But winter still turns to spring, and those whom Leontes tries to destroy eventually lead him back toward forgiveness.

With a cast of only 10 (playing more than 20 characters), Width has created a feeling of community: The actors speak together to set the scene at the beginning of the first act, and when 16 years pass and the action moves on to Bohemia, the cast comes together again to make the change of time and tone seem warm and generous.... Still, just about everything else comes together to create the show's quicksilver mood changes, from the flashes of lightning that show Apollo's wrath to the horrifying sounds of a ravenous bear. (Eric T. Haugen did the lighting design and James Cleveland the sound.) Most of all the actors deliver those astonishing shifts, and the strength of the acting and of Width's direction make all the difference.

Eric Hissom gets the flashiest change, moving from a dark-souled, crazed Leontes in the first act to the charming rogue Autolycus in the second. As Autolycus, he sings and plays the guitar, steals a purse or two from the front row of the audience and leads an uproarious riff on Shakespeare (borrowed from a Royal National Theatre production) that shifts the mood to unadulterated glee.

Paul Bernardo turns from a strong-minded Polixenes into a careworn old man, Antigonus, whose loyalty to Leontes costs him his life, and Michael Walls makes a torn, sympathetic Camillo, who is Leontes' chief adviser. Kareem Bandealy brings the fire and ardor of youth to Polixenes' lovestruck son; Catherine Stork and Jason Flora find all the drollery in a pair of rustic shepherds, and 11-year-old Nathan West makes a sweet-natured little son to Leontes and Hermione.

Yet Shakespeare seems to have written The Winter's Tale to show off the goodness of women: the fierce honesty of Hermione, the youthful constancy of her daughter Perdita and, most of all, the consummate righteousness of Paulina, Hermione's lady-in-waiting, who stands up to Leontes when no one else will.

Suzanne O'Donnell makes a passionate Hermione and Amanda Schlachter an intrepid, lovely Perdita. But it is Anne Hering, as Paulina, who somehow speaks in Shakespeare's own voice: Her warm, worldly Paulina comes on like the wrath of God as she overturns Leontes' throne, and it's her wisdom that eventually sets this world aright.

Not everything that was wrong can be righted in The Winter's Tale; not every lost life can be restored, and Autolycus will get away with a purse or two just as he's caught stealing another one. With redemption comes the recognition of life as it really is; that's this production's great glory. Put the two together, and you have magic.

Brilliant and Piercing Production

INK 19 Magazine
Archikulture Digest
by Carl F. Gauze
Issue 30: November 2002

You just don’t see this play produced very often. Even experienced Shakespearian actors are often unfamiliar with it, but after experiencing the brilliant and piercing production we saw this evening, you'll agree "Winter's Tale" should cross the stage more often. Perhaps it's under appreciated because it's a bit schizophrenic - the first half appears a dark tragedy, only to dissolve after a glass of wine and a surreptitious cigarette into a delightful comedy - love is in the air and even a few bodies pop back to life. Polixenes (Bernardo), King of Bohemia, drops in on his childhood friend Leontes (Hissom), King of Sicilia, only to have Leontes' wife Hermione (O'Donnell) become a little too friendly with Polixenes. Leontes gets the idea that an illicit affair has led to her recent pregnancy, even though they really weren't THAT friendly. Of course there's no real defense against the accusation of a king, as DNA testing is still a few years off and he IS king. As Leontes sinks into regicidal madness, he tries to poison Polixenes, who gets a tip from Leontes advisor Camillo (Michael Walls) and both beat feet back to Bohemia. Soon Hermione dies of shame, her older son (Nathan West) struck down by Apollo when Leontes ignores an oracle, and the newborn daughter Perdita is taken to distant Bohemia to be exposed. Exit stage left, pursued by a bear. Sixteen years later, we find Perdita (Amanda Schlachter) all grown up and in love with Polixenes' son Florizel (Kareem Bandealy) By this time Leontes has had some counseling and Camillo wants to go home so he can die in peace. He convinces the young lovers to flee to Sicilia (they were planning a honeymoon anyway) and everything turns out happy. There's even a magical statute of Hermione, brought to life by the Wiccan spells of Paulina (Anne Hering), giving Leontes back a part of messed up life. Of course, little Mamillius is still dead, but then the Bard never paid any attention to the rules of Hollywood, such as "never kill the kid" or "never kill the dog."

There's a lot going for this production. Hissom spans the full range of emotions from doting father to regicidal maniac to repenatant loser, passing through a larcenous balladeer leading a Shakespearian rap song. O'Donnell's Hermione gets less room to maneuver, but provides a more than convincing defense of her innocence even though she was flirting Polixenes mercilessly in the opening acts. Other strong performances came from the very physical Jason Flores and the officious and opportunistic Camillo.

Set in a minimalist set with Celtic knots and pre-Raphaelite trees, most of the mood changes are set by the technically perfect lighting. The intimate space along with the hallmark Extensive Use Of Aisles During Perfomance brings the action nearly into the laps of the audience. You may not see this play again for years, and it's story of revival and second chances is a real departure from Shakespeare's twin fascination with body count and mistaken identity. Squeeze it in to your holiday schedule before spring reappears to melt the snows of icy Bohemia.

                                                                 Last Updated: 05/06/2007                    Copyright Orlando Shakespeare Theater