Winters Tale: William ShakespeareRST, Stratford Upon AvonRuns ‘till Saturday 30 August 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: Roderick Dungate, AD Performance Saturday 2 August 2025

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner.

Winters Tale: William Shakespeare

RST, Stratford Upon Avon

Runs ‘till Saturday 30 August 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: Roderick Dungate, AD Performance Saturday 2 August 2025

“Commitment raises this productions to great heights.”

Winters Tale is a tricky play leaning towards Shakespeare’s equally tricky romances. The impressive commitment all round in this production supports an often riveting watch though it also opens to the light Shakespeare’s dodgy structure.

The first level of commitment is to the play itself. Director Yael Farber and her take the play: warts and all, and go for it. This commitment is also reflected in each actor’s belief in their role. However unlikely any moment is, each actor, without exception, is fully present in it.

The first part, in Leontes’s court is an earthquake of emotion. It is relentlessly intense, yet performers find space to build to a tension that is almost unbearable. Much rests upon Leontes’s shoulders.  Bertie Carvel is up for it. Once he steps into the dark hole of unfounded belief, he moves seamlessly through belief, then all-consuming belief to (albeit unfounded) fact. His self-destruction is pitiful.

Madeline Appiah as Hermione matches him at all levels, ably aided by a tough and sensitive Paulina Aicha Kossoko. The lengthy duologue between Leontes and Camilo is unforgettable as Rapeal Sowole (Camillo) builds a fitting antagonist.

The second part of the play is set in Bohemia. After the intensity of the first part this section dips. The context of paganism and healthy, earthbound, sexuality contrast well with the courtly class requirements of earlier and nobly supports the section,

The final movement , the magical reconciliations are beautifully handled. Farber and her team find the inbuilt rhythms. Here, Appiah’s (Hermione) comes into her commanding own. Her authority, smashed earlier, re-emerges in full bloom as she gently leads us all into a fresh world of  harmonious wellbeing. This emphasised as the huge overhanging globe which oversees all in Soutra Gilm setting, shifts to moon, then to our own blue planet.

The production is given a strong sense of unity by Soutra Gilmour’s excellent score which both underpins and enhances.

Cast

Time the Thief – Trevor Fox

Leontes – Bertie Carvel

Hermione – Madeline Appiah

Mamillius – Quinn Anderson/Isaac Fox/Aice Nash

Perdita – Leah Haile

Polixenes – John Light

Florizel – Lewis Bowes

Camillo – Raphael Sowole

Pauline – Aicha Kossoko

Antigonus – Matthew Flynn

Emilia – Hilda Cronje

Sheperdess – Amelda Brown

Clown – Ruan Duval

Creatives

Director – Yael Farber

Sets & Costumes – Soutra Gilmour

Lighting – Tim Lutkin

Composer – Max Perryman

Adio Describers – Ellie Packer/Annette Stocken