By Delia Paunescu
As the University begins to welcome spring, another Shakespeare Festival falls upon us and it couldn’t be more appropriate. The Winter’s Tale is a story of two childhood friends (Leontes, King of Sicilia, and Polixenes, King of Bohemia) the mistakes they make and the consequences of rash judgment. As one of Shakespeare’ later plays, this is a genre-defying attempt to redefine romances on the part of the playwright and this production adequately relays the confusion, separating the scenes in such a way that one isn’t quite sure if they’re watching a comedy or a tragedy for the switch between the two is frequent.
In Sicilia, Jeremy Benson’s Leontes is sufficiently enraged without being a ham-his loud voice booming over the halls of Adams Playhouse-while as Hermione, Diana Blue’s soothing voice perfectly encompasses the calm motherliness that is the wronged queen’s optimism. “The queen is spotless in the eyes of heaven,” one of Leontes’s men states and so is Blue’s performance. Nicholas AG Magill’s portrayal of Polixenes is regal without being cocky and his enragement at the news of Florizel’s love takes him from a good actor to a great one.
The scenes in Bohemia are significantly more entertaining with color, dance, music and laughter all coming into play to create the same whimsical fun found at a Renaissance fair. Luckily for the audience, Perdita and Florizel (Crista Marie Jackson and Andrew Huber) have the wonderfully na’ve chemistry found in young love and is an absolute treat for the audience. It should also be said that the ensemble cast in this portion of the play provide endless entertainment.
Then there is the play’s inclusion of Time. Played by Elena Offerman with a calm not often found in student productions, she is dressed as a Grecian goddess, holds the hand positions of saints in Orthodox iconography and remains on stage for most of the performance, leaving only at key points in the drama. In fact, it is only through her running offstage at the moment when Antigonus is attacked by the bear that we know exactly what happened. The exclusion of the bear (apparently for technical reasons) makes the Clown’s recalling the incident to his father slightly confusing though it is more than made up for by the delightfully hilarious comic relief provided when the Old Shepherd (Louis Aquiler) and his son (Steven Spera) are on stage.
Highlights in the performance are the few scenes in which the Old Shepherd, the Clown and the wanderer Autolicus (Brittany Scott) interact. Between Aquiler’s impressive voice, Spera’s mastery of his comedic skill and Scott’s…well, talent, the words of Shakespeare-which modern audiences often claim are so outdated-are brought to the present in a most amusing and updated way. With her Reese Witherspoon looks, one would expect inherent cuteness from Scott. And while there is a good deal of it from in her Autolicus (the girl can’t help it), her talent reaches significantly farther as the role’s requirement of disguises has her performing in several different accents.
The costumes designed by Emily Hockaday are period-confused but adequately relay the surreal world in which this fairy tale takes place and in which the absurdity of Leontes’s feelings exist. The reality of injustice is also presented as high collars are paired with jeans and half the cast goes barefoot. The genius of the costuming only continues as the collar Leontes dons, that was so high at the time when he accused his wife and banished her from the kingdom, is later found fallen, draped flaccidly on the humbled king’s shoulders. Most impressive are the costumes of Time and Hermione upon her return; the use of grey and white material to create a marble effect ties the two characters together in an interesting, thoughtful way.
Rychard Curtiss’s lighting and sound blend perfectly with the sets designed by Deirdre McGuire as the window’s of the great room in Leontes’s palace are used wisely for children can be seen playing, Leontes can see Hermione and Polixenes on a walk and the lighting behind it changes from soothing blue and periwinkle to fiery orange and red as his jealousy grows. The use of wispy material in pastel colors to create columns as the story shifts to Bohemia drastically separates from the predominant use of black and red in Sicilia.
True to the characterization of a winter’s tale, this production is not without its unpleasantries but in the end (and mostly thanks to director Jean Dobie Giebel’s mastery of her craft) the audience goes home significantly more entertained than they had been.
