Seattle Shakespeare production of A Winter's Tale

The Seattle area is settling cozily into Autumn now. Fans of the Seattle Seahawks are getting excited about watching  big men in spandex hold meetings and occasionally chase an inflated leather ball. Others of us are much more interested in the start of another brilliant Seattle Shakespeare season. And this one hit the ground running with its production of The Winter's Tale!

Last month, I attended a Preview showing of the play. Managing Director John Bradshaw, after asking the audience to turn off their cell phones (I remember one going off during Richard II two years ago...and wondering whether the callee was one of the heads in a bag delivered to Bolingbroke later), noted that Preview showings are fresh productions and the cast occasionally have missteps. If there were any in this performance, I definitely missed them. This performance was akin to other Seattle Shakespeare productions I have seen in recent years: homey and comfortable, yet with a stratospheric level of excellence!

For those not familiar with it, The Winter's Tale is the story of a king who destroys his family through a clearly insane jealousy and ultimately largely regains it. Like other late Shakespeare plays (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Tempest), this one contains tragic elements of disaster and ruined lives but culminates in an ending which shows that even when life appears bleak, there can be hope. That's why these late plays are among my favorites

Like much of the Bard's work, this play uses multiple comparable plot lines to emphasize the points being made. While not as insane and lethal as Leontes, his alienated friend Polixines nearly makes a a similarly fatal error in trying to force his will on his son and the princess who he thinks is a common shepherdess.

One other intriguing thing about this play is that Leontes' emotional arc almost seemed like a reverse of the character Othello's in that play. Othello starts off happy, calm and collected, is gradually worked to a fever pitch of jealousy, commits the atrocity of murdering his wife and then discovers that he was duped into doing so and almost calmly takes his own life. In A Winter's Tale, the king starts out calm and then explodes into a jealous rage for no reason at all. He then spends some 16 years trying to atone for his crimes and in a surprise ending, is reunited with the queen he had thought long dead. Perhaps in an intentional choice, the actor portraying Leontes was the same actor who played Iago in Seattle Shakespeare's production of Othello, last year.

Another striking thing about this play (aside from its epic stage direction "Exit pursued by a bear") is how the heroism of ordinary folks serves to counteract the dangerous excesses of rulers making bad choices. For a playwright so invested in royalty and maintaining the natural hierarchical order of things, the actions of Camillo and Paulina in this play are a refreshing reminder that power does not automatically bring wisdom...

This production was delightful and I am very glad to have seen it.

Production Team

Sheila Daniels (Director)
Tommer Peterson (Set Designer)
Kelly McDonald (Costume Designer)
Reed Nakayama (Lighting Designer)
Harry Todd Jamieson (Sound Designer)
Marc Kenison (Choreographer)
Rafael Molina (Composer)
Robin Macartney (Props Designer)
Miranda Pratt (Stage Manager).

Cast

Mark Fullerton (Old Shepherd)
Rachel Guyer-Mafune (Dorcas/Lady)
Spencer Hamp (Clown)
Reginald Andre Jackson (Polixenes)
Jonelle Jordan (Mopsa/Emilia)
Brenda Joyner (Hermione)
Darragh Kennan (Leontes)
Finn Kennan (Mamillius)
Denny Le (ensemble)
George Mount (Antigonus)
Galen Joseph Osier (Camillo)
Rudy Roushdi (Florizel)
MJ Sieber (Autolycus)
Jasmine Jean Sim (Perdita)
Amy Thone (Paulina)

The Art of April 23

For lovers of literature and culture, April will always have a special significance. By tradition, that is the day on which William Shakespeare was born in 1564 (we know he was baptized 3 days later) and also the day on which he died in 1616.

The 400th anniversary of these milestones were bound to be celebrated with vigor and enthusiasm and such, indeed, was the case. Special events in England reached a crescendo, with special shows and broadcasts highlighting the notable performances of eminent actors. In the US, the Folger Library has sent several of the posthumously published 1623 First Folio to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Bard fever is in the air and millions have joined a worldwide cultural celebration.

But there have been many quiet personal celebrations as well. Here are notes about a couple such celebrations.

On April 23, 1964, this envelope was used to send a letter home to Denmark (thought not to Elsinore Castle) from a visitor to Stratford-upon-Avon. The envelope and stamps were designed by the British Post, highlighting some iconic scenes and characters from Shakespeare's stories. But I find it intriguing to wonder who the visitor was that paused in his trip to Shakespeare's home to send this letter home to a family member or a friend.

52  years later to the day, exactly 400 years after Shakespeare died, this happened. The tattoo was inspired by the Hamlet statue at the Gower Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is not my Shakespeare tattoo. This is the BEGINNING of my Shakespeare tattoo...

Shakespeare's First Folio Visits Seattle

 

Tradition has it that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England on April 23. 1564. During the course of his life, he wrote nearly 40 plays and co-wrote some number of others. He died on April 23, 1616. Yet for a man who lived 400 years ago, his impact on the world has been astonishing. He contributed dozens of common expressions to contemporary speech (e.g., jealousy as the "green eyed monster") and created a number of the most memorable characters in the Western Canon. Some even credit him with creating a model of human consciousness by examining the rich inner lives of his characters.

Yet there were times when these rich cultural treasures could have been lost forever. At the time of his death, only about half his plays had been collected together. Two of his contemporaries, John Heminges and Henry Condell, succeeded in getting the First Folio of Shakespeare's work published in 1623, restoring some nearly lost classics such as Macbeth and As You Like It. Later, legislation enacted by the Puritans crippled theatrical performance from 1642-1660. The Great London Fire of 1666 destroyed nearly half of all editions of the Third Folio.

Our extreme good fortune in having the work of Shakespeare available to us is why the world is celebrating the 400th anniversary of his passing, this year. One of the exceptional things happening this year is that the Folger Shakespeare Library, in cooperation with the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, is sending some of the 82 First Folios in its collection out on a nationwide tour. This tour includes all 50 states in the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Seattle's turn started on March 21 and runs through April 17. Today was our day to visit the First Folio, at the Seattle Public Library..

The terrific thing about this exhibit is that, while it celebrates the First Folio, it was really about a lot more than that one (AMAZING) nearly 400 year old book. OK, I'll look at the First Folio first but there are more cool things to come.

 

 

These are the best pictures I got of the First Folio. Obviously, we didn't get to physically touch it but it was open to one of the most well known passages in world literature, Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech. Even being that close to it physically was like communing with the world of Elizabethan England in some inexplicable way. This IS one of the most famous and important books in the world.

 

However, Seattle was exceptionally fortunate in that we also had a copy of the Third Folio from the Pigott Collection on exhibit. Moreover, while the First Folio drew a crowd that had a constant stream of people walking in a queue past it, the Third Folio was not looked at quite so much...I got to linger there a bit. The Third Folio was open to As You Like it, specifically Jacques' "All the world's a stage" speech.

Seeing the Third Folio also was quite an unexpected bonus. It is nearly as rare as the First Folio, in that nearly half its printed run was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

We didn't get to physically touch the Third Folio, either, strangely. But the Seattle Library clearly anticipated this frustration by having a number of Folio copies that you could actually flip through. They were quite gorgeous...I think I'll have to add one to my Shakespeare shelves, some day.

 

There was also an exhibit which highlighted the rich tradition of Shakespeare play performances in Seattle. I've been a fan of the current Seattle Shakespeare company for years, now. It was fascinating to find out how far the area's tradition of performance goes back.

The library has also been hosting a series of performances and lectures to accompany this exhibit.

And there were mementos and kid activities accompanying the exhibit, too.

I really have to congratulate the Seattle Library and its people for doing such a phenomenal job with this exhibit. The exhibit itself was BRILLIANT and the people tracking tickets at its entrance were very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.

The First Folio's visit to Seattle ends two weeks from today and online tickets were going fast. If you have the time, I seriously recommend try to go...some drop-in admission openings ARE available. Information here.