The Winter's Tale (review)

The Stratford Festival of Canada produced a schizophrenic Winter's Tale—both dark Sicilian tragedy and colorful gypsy romance—in its black-box space, the whimsy and fairy-tale ending of the second half blunting the impact of the first act's domestic drama.

Marti Maraden began with a sparse presentation of Sicilia, a pair of Oriental-style teardrop lamps flanking a large table. The heart of Maraden's production was Ben Carlson's Leontes, an anti-hero with a mercurial temperament. In 1.2, Maraden showed Leontes in gregarious host mode, toasting his long-haired friend Polixenes and abiding his son Mamillius, who whined and pulled on his robes. Leontes made casual inquiry—"is he won yet?"—then coolly remarked on Polixenes's decision to stay: "at my request he would not."

Maraden presented the change within Leontes via spotlight—"too hot, too hot"—as Polixenes placed a shawl over Hermione's shoulders. Carlson's Leontes seemed like a different person, his change Jekyll-and-Hyde abrupt. Hunched as if carrying an enormous weight, Leontes stood alone in a spotlight as Polixenes—"what means Sicilia?"—noticed the change in his behavior. Carlson's Leontes staggered as if suddenly possessed with demons, questioning his son—"art thou my calf?"—then shouting as his emotions devolved into anger: "go, play, boy, play … your mother plays." Carlson's speech came quicker and louder, his body language more tormented. He derided "Sir Smile" Polixenes as well as Hermione—"my wife is slippery"—before becoming violent. He insulted Camillo then shoved him, sending him sprawling all the way across the stage.

By 2.1 Carlson's Leontes was unyielding—"all's true that is mistrusted"—and capable of Othello-like acts of violence in the most emotionally charged scenes of the production. Clad in black fur and monster-like in his resolve—"I have drunk and seen the spider"—he yanked Mamillius from his mother's side and tore the multi-colored African afghan from Hermione's shoulders.

Seana McKenna's fiery Paulina provided the voice of reason in 2.2 as Leontes blustered though a soliloquy as if about to come apart at the mental seams. He sat exhausted downstage, bent over and head down, deriding his newborn daughter—"a mankind witch!"—accusing his advisors—"a nest of traitors"—and threatening Paulina: "I'll ha' thee burnt." McKenna's Paulina was the only opposition—"it is an heretic that makes the fire"—to the King's jealous rage. The scene concluded with Leontes's fury—"I'll not rear another's issue!"—in a fading spotlight on the seething King.

The trial scene proved effective, with the sound of a crowd and an onstage bailiff shouting "silence!" as the now self-indulgent Leontes sat with his eyes closed to listen to the indictment. Maraden showed events pummeling Carlson's Leontes like body blows as Hermione collapsed and Paulina arrived with news that Mamillius had died. Leontes spun believably backward and then began a rambling apology in agonized self-realization, bouncing pathetically like a human pinball from courtier to courtier before falling to his knees and covering his face. Paulina knelt with him after telling him that Hermione had also died, and they gently touched hands as she helped him stand.

Maraden began to make the uneasy transition from domestic tragedy to Bohemian fairy tale in 3.3, showing Antigonus leaving the crying princess in a basket upon a storm-tossed beach. Antigonus exited, pursued by a bear, a backlit two-person monstrosity that roared upstage, flashing teeth and claws as it galloped after him. The transition continued into 4.1 with a spot-lit Father Time clad in white and suspended in a...