TIME HEALS ALL PLOTS
Shakespeare’s strange romance, which begins with gratuitous jealousy and ends with gratuitous forgiveness, is best treated as a fairy tale for grownups: A virtuous queen is condemned for adultery, her supposed spoiler her husband’s equally honest best friend. It suddenly seems as if we blundered from courtly courtesies into an Othello-like tragedy. But that’s the cold first act where “a sad tale’s best for winter.” 16 years later, all is forgiven in this Winter’s Tale: The abandoned offspring of these formerly feuding friends fall in love, purging the sins of the fathers. Since no past pain can be admitted into this “happily ever after,” a contrived miracle restores the supposedly dead mother. But nothing can help the poor courtier who gets mangled by a bear in the theater’s best-known stage direction.
Despite the fractured fairy-tale trappings, the Bard’s late romance casts a sturdy spell: The wrongs done by two hotheaded fathers are healed by time and their children. Leontes, a gratuitously jealous king of Sicilia, is reunited with his unjustly accused and supposedly dead wife Hermione and his radiantly innocent, purportedly dead daughter Perdita. To seal the forgiveness, Perdita loves Prince Florizel of Bohemia, son of Leontes’ unjustly accused, life-long friend Polixenes. All’s well that ends well–but this familiar Shakespearean tale of evil envy and pointless pity is hardly much ado about nothing. A true tragicomedy, it’s, well, as you like it.
However preposterous this massive make-believe, the fairy tale demands a dedicated telling. First Folio Theatre’s co-staging, by Alison C. Vesely and Hayley Rice, is fluid and forceful. Rachel Lambert’s fin-de-siecle finery graces the first act and, in the second, contrasts with earth-toned folk costumes and elaborate hanging lanterns for Bohemia. Angela Weber Miller’s massive palace commands the sprawling stage, though both the stately property changes and an overly deliberate first act prolong the talespinning to nearly three hours. (This is all the more regrettable since the second act’s Bohemian scenes are severely–and somewhat justifiably–shortened, with Perdita’s foster brothers and the roguish thief/peddler Autolycus entirely deleted.)
Kevin Theis’ Polixenes ranges believably from a much-injured friend to, in his casual cruelty to Perdita, a much-injuring father. Equally wrongheaded with his erroneous heart, Kevin McKillip’s green-sick Leontes is a formidable contradiction–a strong king with weak judgement. His instant and implacable rage astonishes himself as much as the Sicilian court. Leontes’ nearly two decades’ of remorse over his wife’s supposed death could easily seem forced but it’s force-fed by non-negotiable regret.
More affable than angry, Diana Coates’ reconciling Paulina is not a particularly passionate defender of her mistress’s honor. Hers is not the usual tigress-like champion of innocence, but Coates’ contagious delight in effecting a reconciliation in the second act makes sense, coming from this sweeter confidante. The young lovers, played with charm and vitality by Ann Marie White and Ryan Czerwonko, are spring in flesh.
Reason enough to see this Winter’s Tale, Melissa Carlson’s queenly Hermione would stand out on any stage, eloquent even when silent and magnificent in her trial scene. Her dignity rooted in her purity, Hermione never seemed nobler or more natural.
photos by D. Rice
The Winter’s Tale
First Folio Theatre
Mayslake Peabody Estate
1717 W 31st St. in Oak Brook
ends on August 9, 2015
for tickets, call 630.986.8067 or visit www.firstfolio.org
