THE WINTER'S TALE. To 20 October.
Edinburgh
THE WINTER’S TALE.
by William Shakespeare.
Royal Lyceum Theatre To 20 October 2007.
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat and Wed 2.30pm except 17, 20 Oct.
Runs 2hr 20min. One interval.
TICKETS: 0131 248 4848.
www.lyceum.org.uk
Review: Thelma Good 22 September 2007.
Fine production when it keeps to its feet.
Liam Brennan convinces in the tricky role of Leontes, King of Sicily and the husband who is possessed of sudden and overpowering jealously that his wife is too intimate with his friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. Selina Boyack also convinces as the pregnant wife Hermione, steeling herself to endure rather than shriek her innocence.
On top form Una Mclean gives us a feisty Paulina, the older woman who realises Leontes has gone beyond sense and can not be reasoned with, while Peter Kelly, Alan Francis (also a delightful Autolycus), Antony Strachan and Robin Laing (whose later young shepherd is another delight) provide a variety of well-drawn, high-ranking servants who try to save their master from himself. Shakespeare clearly draws out how even brave courtiers can find themselves unable to shift the person with the ultimate power from a fixed idea. With Hermione reported dead, their baby daughter Perdita is exposed on the shores of Bohemia.
Then follows a story of simple shepherds and their friends. Perdita, now a beautiful young woman, has fallen for Florizel (very well played by Simon Müller), only she knows he’s heir to the Bohemian throne. It’s a charming interlude where Shakespeare lets us see that simple folk may lack wealth but they can enjoy their lives. Though there’s another uncomfortable strand gradually revealed as the drama all knits together – all’s well with the young couple because she’s really royal after all.
The two strange directorial impositions? At the start of the fourth act, Time, a figure seated in an electrically-powered wheelchair is lowered from above, speaking in a hard-to-follow electronic voice (resembling that used by Stephen Hawking), as the audience struggle to grasp sixteen years have past, Leontes still grieves, and the scene is in Bohemia.
When next we meet Leontes, he’s in a wheelchair too, a self-propellable one, but Brennan’s Leontes never seems in real need of it. There’s no need to make Leontes risible like this. If it had stayed away from the wheelchairs this production of Shakespeare’s tricky play, which has so much going for it, would have been thoroughly skilful.
Hermione/Shepherdess: Selina Boyack.
Leontes/Shepherd: Liam Brennan.
Antigonus/Autolycus: Alan Francis.
Polixenes/Mariner: Ian Grieve.
Dion/Gaoler/Shepherd: Ian Hanmore.
Lord/Old Shepherd: Peter Kelly.
Lord/Young Shepherd: Robin Laing.
Paulina/Dorcas: Una Mclean.
Officer/Florizel: Simon Müller.
Emilia/Mopsa: Shonagh Price.
Mamillius/Perdita: Siobhan Reilly.
Cleomenes/Shepherd: Antony Strachan.
Camillo: Colin Tarrant.
Director: Mark Thomson.
Designer: Robin Don.
Lighting: Davy Cunningham.
Sound/Composer: Philip Pinsky.
-Choreographer: Malcolm Shields.
Assistant director: Steve Mann.
2007-09-30 00:54:58