The Cast of The Winter’s Tale. PC: Nile Scott Studios.
Presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Bryn Boice
Original Music by Mackenzie Adamick
Choreography by Victoria Lynn Awkward
Fight/Intimacy Consultant: Jess Meyer
Scenic Design: James J. Fenton
Costume Designer: Rachel Padula-Shufelt
Lighting Designer: Maximo Grano De Oro
Sound Designer: David Remedios
Properties Designer: Lauren Corcuera
July 16 – August 4, 2024
The Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common
Boston, MA
Accessibility Info
All performances of The Winter’s Tale are open-captioned.
Fancy interactive digital Playbill
Content Advisory from the CSC website: jealousy, betrayal, a child and mother dying, child abandonment, false imprisonment, pick-pocketing–and being pursued by a bear (while exiting). A copy editor needs to check the website’s grammar. For example, periods go outside of parentheses when ending a sentence.
The Winter’s Tale runs approximately two hours and twenty minutes plus a 15-minute intermission.
Critique by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON — Some people love Shakespeare; I don’t prefer him; it’s not my thing. I appreciate Shakespeare: the poetry in his language and the traditions surrounding his works, but I don’t seek him out. Shakespeare on the Common is for an audience who loves an outdoor performance (no thanks), who wants to see Shakespeare’s works reconsidered (nope), and who loves the summer ritual of Shakespeare in the Park (alas, nay).
Reader, I had an enjoyable time at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s The Winter’s Tale on Boston Common. CSC and its cast and crew created a delightful experience. This may be one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays” that alienates audiences with its complications and, while this production has its problems, it is entertaining and will please more people than it disappoints.
King Leontes of Sicilia (Nael Nacer) and King Polixenes of Bohemia (Omar Robinson) are besties. When Polixenes says he wants to leave Leontes’ kingdom in Sicilia, Leontes is convinced it is because Polixenes has committed acts of infidelity with his overwhelmingly pregnant wife Hermione (Marianna Bassham), Queen of Sicilia. Leontes is diseased with jealousy: he commands Camillo (Tony Estrella) to poison Polixenes. Instead, Camillo and Polixenes leave Sicilia together. Hermione delivers a daughter early and dies before she can be imprisoned. Lady Paulina (Paula Plum) asks Leontes to reconsider. Instead, the daughter is brought overseas and abandoned. She is discovered by a Shepherd (Richard Snee) and a Clown (Cleveland Nicoll) who raise her.
Clara Hevia and Josh Olumide with the Cast of The Winter’s Tale. PC: Nile Scott Studios.
16 years later, the daughter Perdita (Clara Hevia) is throwing a party for the sheep sheering festival when her boyfriend Florizel, the prince of Bohemia and Polixenes son (Joshua Olumide), asks her to marry him. Autolycus robs party guests blind with a tune and some sleight of hand (Ryan Winkles). Polixenes forbids the match so the lovers flee to Sicilia. There, identities are revealed, friends are reunited, and peace is restored to both kingdoms. An ensemble plays lords, ladies in waiting, Bohemians, and other tertiary roles.
This production is accessible to a wide audience. Its crew and designers have gone out of their way to ensure that the majority of attendees will understand what is happening to the play’s characters even if they don’t understand the language. Set and lighting design indicate that The Winter’s Tale occurs in two different countries. Its costume and hair design tell us which characters are native to which location. Sound design and music indicate when and where dramatic events occur. The viewing public need only find a seat within proximity of the stage and away from loud attendees.
The whimsical 90s, hippy, rave dance choreography by Victoria Lynn Awkward tells who the revelers are while showing us they know how to plan a sheep shearing festival (…sheep shearing, sheep shearing, sheep shearing…). Millennials and older will recognize the neon pinks and greens from the early 90s. Youths will recognize the same colors and fashions from the retro parties they attend today.
The performances of The Winter’s Tale range from artistic excellence to the motivational. Boston theatre heavyweights Nael Nacer, Omar Robinson, and Marianna Bassham deliver exceptional performances as the focal players. They maintained intensity despite the Common’s many distractions. They were so securely in the world of the play that they pulled us back in when drama offstage ripped us out.
Richard Snee and Cleveland Nicoll as the Shepherd and Clown, and Ryan Winkles as Autolycus gave us hilarious physical comedy. Their work was the best use of the stage all evening. In a production notable for its emotional expression from young actors who looked physically constipated, Snee, Nicoll, and Winkles reminded their audience that the actors’ hive mind is only as strong as its weakest links.
For the actors young in body and in training: there was a great deal of shoulder shrugging and intense forward leaning. Actors do this when they lack confidence in their ability to express empathetic emotions. No matter what’s going on in your head: enunciate, plant your feet, square your shoulders unless it’s a character choice, cheat out, don’t touch your hair, lead with your upstage leg, fake confidence until you feel it, and, most importantly, watch Boston masters like Boice, Nacer, Bassham, Robinson, Plum and Walsh work. They can teach you more on the stage than you’ll ever learn in a classroom.
The lesson we can glean from The Winter’s Tale is to never underestimate another’s insecurity. Kings can misinterpret allegiances and mischievous thieves can pick the wrong pocket. All of us are only as secure as our respect and trust in others.
Thanks to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s many partners and sponsors, The Winter’s Tale is free to the public (with an encouraged but never enforced $20 donation). Despite what the belligerent gentleman with a tale to tell screaming himself hoarse during Act One on Thursday evening believed, no one is forcing anyone to watch the show A Clockwork Orange-style. Free, flawed Shakespeare on the Common is better than perfect, true to the first folio, any casting you want, sticks-up-bums No Shakespeare on the Common. And, maybe wear a mask. COVID is going around again.
