THE WINTER'S TALE To 15 August.
London
THE WINTER’S TALE
by William Shakespeare.
Old Vic Theatre In rep to 15 August 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm.
Audio-described 21 July (+Touch Tour 6.30pm).
Captioned 7 July.
Runs 3hr One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 871 7628. (£2.50 transaction fee - does not apply to supporters of The Old Vic).
Minicom: 0870 060 6641.
www.oldvictheatre.com
Review: Carole Woddis 9 June 9.
Russell Beale and Cusack triumph.
Kevin Spacey has weathered some storms since he took over the Old Vic. No doubt there will be more to come. But teaming up with `old pal’ Sam Mendes to present this Bridge Project of The Winter’s Tale alongside Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard with an all star Anglo-American cast will do him no harm at all. Sometimes it betrays glitz over substance. I’d be the first to say, however, that in terms of the first half of The Winter’s Tale, I wouldn’t hope to see a more gripping or intense reading.
This is the play that pulls back Time and offers promise of redemption as well as, in a sense, life after death. It’s also a play of two halves. Mendes, on a bare stage lit only by a harvest of candles, presents Leontes’ Sicilia as a (read British) uptight tyranny. By comparison, Polixenes’ Bohemia is all American sunlight, balloons, fiddles and hoe-downs, as if a scene from Carousel. When Polixenes and Camillo turn up they look like a couple of outcasts from a Shaker community whilst Ethan Hawke’s Autolycus – “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles” – carries the unmistakeable whiff of disillusion. His voice seems darkened by over-use of every conceivable kind.
But the main feast is Simon Russell Beale’s Leontes. Effortlessly surfing the verse, he makes you hear as if for the first time its extraordinary syntax. In the throes of irrational jealousy, Leontes, like Lear, spits out single words that pierce like ice.
When it comes to the trial scene with Rebecca Hall’s gaunt Hermione, the anguish of both recalls husband against wife in the 1979 film Kramer v Kramer. It’s that combative. And real.
Mendes makes you see this really is a play about terrible tyranny. One only wishes all such tyrannies would have their comeuppance. In the meantime, Hall’s Hermione is perhaps unduly flirtatious but acquires fantastic force and dignity under duress. Paul Jesson is a steady courtier as Camillo and although British and American accents do sometimes jar, moments such as Sinead Cusack’s ferocious condemnation of Leontes and Russell Beale’s wrenching grief are unquestionably definitive.
Leontes: Simon Russell Beale.
Hermione: Rebecca Hall.
Mamillius/Perdita: Morven Christie.
Camillo: Paul Jesson.
Antigonus: Dakin Matthews.
Paulina: Sinead Cusack.
Cleomenes/Jailer/Bear: Gary Powell.
Dion/Florizel: Michael Braun.
Lord of Sicilia/Mariner: Mark Nelson.
Servant of Sicilia/Servant of Bohemia: Aaron Krohn.
Emilia: Hannah Stokely.
Lady-in-Waiting/Mopsa: Charlotte Parry.
Polixenes: Josh Hamilton.
Old Shepherd/Time: Richard Easton.
Young Shepherd: Tobias Segal.
Autolycus: Ethan Hawke.
Dorcas: Jessica Pollert Smith.
Shepherds & Shepherdess: Dakin Matthews, Mark Nelson, Gary Powell, Hannah Stokely.
Musicians
Percussion/aluminium harp/accordion/guitar: Harvey Brought/Dan Lipton.
Percussion/violin: Stephen Bentley-Klein.
Director: Sam Mendes.
Designer: Anthony Ward.
Lighting: Paul Pyant.
Sound: Paul Arditti.
Music: Mark Bennett.
Music Director: Dan Lipton.
Choreographer: Josh Prince.
Costume: Catherine Zuber.
The Bridge Project is supported by Bank of America and produced by the Old Vic, Brooklyn Academy of Music & Neal Street Productions.
It was also co-commissioned by and produced in association with Athens & Epidaurus Festival, The Edge in Auckland, NZ, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, the Singapore Repertory Theatre and Teatro Espanõl de Madrid.
The Winter’s Tale was first performed at the Old Vic on Friday 29 May 2009. It opened at BAM in Jan-March 2009 and then embarked on an international tour. Its last stop after the London season will be Epidaurus.
2009-06-11 00:51:40