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| Polixenes, Hermione, Leontes: jealousy |
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare.
Bell Shakespeare directed by John Bell; designer Stephen Curtis; lighting by Matthew Marshall; composer Alan John; sound designer Nate Edmondson; dramaturg John Kachoyan. At the Sydney Opera House Playhouse: Season (including previews) March 1 – 29, 2014.
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| Paulina, Leontes: redemption |
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| Polixenes, Leontes, Hermione, Camillo: reconciliation |
Cast:
Leontes/Old Shepherd Myles Pollard
Hermione/Mopsa Helen Thomson
Paulina/Dorcas Michelle Doake
Polixenes Dorian Nkono
Camillo Philip Dodd
Antigonus/Autolycus Terry Serio
Cleomenes/Florizel Felix Jozeps
Dion/Young Shepherd Justin Smith
Emilia/Perdita Liana Cornell
Mamillius Otis Pavlovic / Rory Potter
Reviewed by Frank McKone
Opening Night March 12
Beautiful!
That’s all I really need to say about this original interpretation of The Winter’s Tale.
But I want to say more: about how and why it works so well, and something about this production’s significance.
The Winter’s Tale and King Lear have always puzzled me on one point: why did Shakespeare let key characters – Leontes’ son Mamillius and Lear’s Fool – just insignificantly die. They fade from the drama without much ado. Late in Lear we hear that the Fool has been hanged. In the Tale Mamillius sickens, but we do not see his death – despite the crucial role he plays in Leontes’ psychological state – and even his memory is effectively replaced by his long-lost sister, Perdita.
John Bell has solved my puzzle. He was, I guess, impressed as I was by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1969 setting – in the famous ‘white box’ – of The Winter’s Tale, which we saw on their Australian tour in 1970. Here’s Trevor Nunn’s image of the story beginning in the child’s nursery.
http://www.rsc.org.uk/images/content/Photo_Galleries-2009_earlier/winters-tale-1969-judi-541x361.jpg
Trevor
Nunn's 1969 production of The Winter's Tale was designed by Christopher
Morley and featured Judi Dench as Hermione. Photo shows Act 2, Scene 1
with Hermione (Judi Dench), Mamillius (Sam Rich, centre) and Leontes
(Barrie Ingham).
Photo by Reg Wilson.
Photo by Reg Wilson.
The
key that Bell has found to unlock the puzzle is to set the whole play
in Mamillius’ nursery. It is a fairy story, told to us by the young boy
as if the adults are like the toys that come alive in Léonide Massine’s
ballet La Boutique Fantasque, though rather more like something from the brothers Grimm collection. Although
they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable
for children, both for the scholarly information included and the
subject matter.[Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, p15-17 quoted in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales ]
In Bell’s play, Mamillius does not die for us, but becomes a kind of wizard – rather like Prospero in The Tempest – as he plays the Oracle from Delphi with a magic wand that creates magnificent lightning and thunder. This is a young boy at play, but his story is for adults.
And so, for the first time for me, even including the Trevor Nunn version, the revelation of the statue of Hermione, brought to life by the touch of her son’s spirit, brought real tears to my eyes. At last The Winter’s Tale made sense, from the psychosis of Leonte’s irrational jealousy in falsely believing in Hermione’s and Polixene’s perfidy, to the importance of rational, clear-minded people like Paulina and Camillo, and to the possibility – or at least the hope – of redemption and reconcilation.
And, although I highly praise all the cast and stage creative team, I am left with a special sense of the enjoyment in performing for the young boy Mamillius – Rory Potter for me, and Otis Pavlovic on other nights – when he points his Oracle’s wand and creates wonderful lighting and sound effects, or plays with his torch to create the shadow of his teddy bear as it pursues the hapless innocent, honest and trustworthy Antigone to his gory death, or conducts puppet conversations among his soft toys, and finally as he brings his mother back to life.
What a tremendous experience this must be for these young boys, just as this production is a beautiful theatrical work of art for its adult audience.
In Bell’s play, Mamillius does not die for us, but becomes a kind of wizard – rather like Prospero in The Tempest – as he plays the Oracle from Delphi with a magic wand that creates magnificent lightning and thunder. This is a young boy at play, but his story is for adults.
And so, for the first time for me, even including the Trevor Nunn version, the revelation of the statue of Hermione, brought to life by the touch of her son’s spirit, brought real tears to my eyes. At last The Winter’s Tale made sense, from the psychosis of Leonte’s irrational jealousy in falsely believing in Hermione’s and Polixene’s perfidy, to the importance of rational, clear-minded people like Paulina and Camillo, and to the possibility – or at least the hope – of redemption and reconcilation.
And, although I highly praise all the cast and stage creative team, I am left with a special sense of the enjoyment in performing for the young boy Mamillius – Rory Potter for me, and Otis Pavlovic on other nights – when he points his Oracle’s wand and creates wonderful lighting and sound effects, or plays with his torch to create the shadow of his teddy bear as it pursues the hapless innocent, honest and trustworthy Antigone to his gory death, or conducts puppet conversations among his soft toys, and finally as he brings his mother back to life.
What a tremendous experience this must be for these young boys, just as this production is a beautiful theatrical work of art for its adult audience.
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| Otis Pavlovic as Mamillius, Terry Serio as Autolycus |
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| Felix Jozeps as Florizel, Liana Cornell as Perdita Michelle Doake as Dorcas, Terry Serio as Autolycus, Helen Thomson as Mopsa, Otis Pavlovic (part hidden) and Justin Smith as Young Shepherd |
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| Rory Potter as Mamillius as Oracle of Delphi |
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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