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The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare at Theatre for a New Audience

Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale is incredibly important to me. I wrote a paper about it as an undergraduate that eventually went on to win a criticism award and helped me get accepted into grad school. I rank it as second behind Hamlet as my favorite Shakespeare play. And it's not done very often (I think, correct me if I'm wrong, the last major production in New York City was the Shakespeare in the Park production in 2010), so whenever this play is produced, I try to make a point of seeing it.

As someone who loves Shakespeare's work, I am always happy to see a production that isn't Twelfth Night or King Lear or Macbeth. Do we need an excuse to just stage a play by the greatest writer in the history of English language? I certainly don't want to think so. But because there is so much misguided Shakespeare these days, I'm beginning to think maybe we do need a reason beyond, "this man was a genius, this play is brilliant. If we don't do them, they will be lost." Shakespeare is hard to read, to watch, to perform, and to stage for a reason. It requires a lot of skill from all involved. While it was a joy to see a production of a play I love, I don't necessarily think the new production at Theatre for a New Audience, directed by Arin Arbus, really makes any arguments for another Winter's Tale.

The Winter's Tale is certainly a tricky one because it's very grounded in its setting; it's difficult to update, modernize it, or conceptualize. It's akin to a fairy tale, and while it deals with universal themes of adultery, paranoia, guilt, and redemption, it still exists in an ethereal world. Not to mention, there's talk of a changling child, a bear (and props to Arbus for actually including a bear, not a puppet or a shadow, in her production), and a statue that eventually comes to life.

Arbus tries to modernize The Winter's Tale a bit; judging from the costumes, this production could take place anytime between the 1960s and now. But that doesn't matter. This is a fairy tale, right? The costumes are really the only sort of touch Arbus employs on the play. The first half, the stuff set in Sicily, is directed to be cold, stark, the set is white and the lighting is dim. There's a gray haze over the stage. But this is all the text. The opening acts with Leontes and Polixines and Hermoine represent the tragedy in this tragicomedy; it's winter, things (and people) are dying. And perhaps being cooped up in a castle in the snow is what causes Leontes' paranoia to grow. He's got a case of cabin fever.

And then the winter exists, pursued by bear.

(And the bear is really played for laughs a little too much. Having the bear and Antigonus parody West Side Story during their struggle was ridiculous.)

And then comes the spring! And a little bit of color gets added to the set, and the lighting gets brighter, and the comedy kicks in (the highlight of the production are the two shepherds played by John Keating and Ed Malone). But the text starts to meander a bit here, especially in the sheep shearing party scene, and Arbus does nothing to help it. Much like the sheep, it can be sheared a bit too. I also argue that Arnie Burton's portrayal of Autolycus was a little misguided; having him break the fourth wall and mention Starbucks gift cards and non-profit theater was not funny but obnoxious. Low hanging fruit. And it's a shame because Arnie Burton is not only one of my favorite working actors in New York but one of the funniest. He doesn't need to be gimmicky, he's just naturally funny. Trust the material, let the man do what he's fantastic at.

But that's the issue with this production; inserting these cheap gags isn't a vision. It just shows me that you don't trust the material, that you need to gain the audience's attention somehow. The material can be, and should be funny, if you direct your actors properly.

The run time is close to three hours and the second half of the second act does start to drag. Again, the text is a little scattered in the second act; there are a lot of ideas in it, and it doesn't help that so much happens off stage. Lots of telling, not showing. But Arbus doesn't succeed in the shift back to Sicily, and everything is presented in a very straight-forward way. By the time Hermione's statue comes to life, I was just ready to go home.

Shakespeare is a tough animal to tame. I always expect productions to last, at minimum, three hours. It is okay to direct a straight forward interpretation of these plays, if you do it properly. If you prove this should exist. The current production of The Winter's Tale just feels inessential because it's simply not a strong enough production.

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