We usually steer clear of Shakespeare, the last time I
watched one of his plays was 25 years ago at school for English Literature and
the only thing I can remember about it was that I hadn’t a clue what was going on
throughout the whole play! It’s fair to say I didn’t enjoy it at all and I have
never seen another Shakespeare play since. When we were offered the chance to
see The Winter’s Tale we thought it would be a good opportunity to broaden our
literary experiences, lots of people love Shakespeare so perhaps we should give
it another try. Knowing that the language that Shakespeare uses can be a little
tricky to follow we thought it best to do a little research beforehand to find
out what the play was about. I am so glad we did because whilst we still found
the language difficult to follow in places, knowing the outline of the story
made it much easier to follow and know what was going on in the play.
The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s later works and is
a tale of jealousy and mistrust, the first act is quite dark, showing King
Leontes of Sicily (Conrad Nelson) turn on his pregnant wife Hermione (Hannah
Barrie) with the unfounded suspicion that she has been unfaithful to him with
his best friend King Polixenes of Bavaria (Jack Lord). Hermione apparently dies
of shock following her trial and her newborn daughter is banished from the
kingdom, presumed dead.
The second act is a complete contrast, set 16 years later in
Bavaria where the infant Perdita has grown into a beautiful young woman. She
has been cared for by a shepherd who found her as a baby and brought her up as
his own.
The sets were simple but very effective and made clever use
of video projection.
The acting throughout was fantastic, during the first act
Conrad really stood out with his portrayal of the emotion and turmoil that King
Leontes was going through. He convincingly showed the King’s jealousy, anger,
grief and finally regret as he came to terms with the loss of his wife and
children and then realised the error of his ways.
The second half was much livelier and the rest of the cast
took their opportunity to shine. I especially enjoyed the scenes with the
musicians on stage, their singing and musical abilities really enhanced the
show.
The Dukes is easy to find, situated close to the centre of
Lancaster with plenty of parking nearby. The car park we used had an evening
rate of £1.40 and was very close to the theatre.
Directed by Conrad Nelson this production from Northern
Broadsides brings a less well known Shakespeare play to Lancaster and makes it
very accessible to ordinary people. We really enjoyed our Shakespeare
experience and won’t be leaving it 25 years to the next one!
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