The Winter's Tale by William ShakespeareMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am looking forward to a production of this at the Arthur Miller Theatre in Ann Arbor, so I thought I would re-read the play. I also watched a decent, true-to-script production directed by Jeremy Cole for AE of Berkeley. First of, this play by William Shakespeare seems to be phoned in on some plot elements resulting in, I suppose, inadvertent humor like the deserts of the Bohemian seacoast. Then there is the explicit humor of his most famous of stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear." How better to make light of abandoning an infant to death by exposure except to toss in a wild animal to gruesomely slay Antigonus, whose loyalty to Leontes is un-remembered. More guffaws come from the comedic shenanigans of Shepherd, Clown, and the wily "rogue" Autolycus. More to the phoning is in the deus ex macina of the statue of Hermione coming to life. Pose or magic? Not really clear, not really matters... Just a fun fancy sustained for five acts.
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