THE WINTER’S TALE (The Show Must Go Online)*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9V4YwZArao

Available until: Forever

Trigger warning: The bear is a very messy eater

The Winter’s Tale is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. A lot of people don’t like it and that’s okay but I really love it. I think the characters are really interesting people and I like them all.

Lots of people don’t like Leontes because of the way he treats Hermione and I understand that. He’s got it really badly wrong and it must be really hurtful for her and she gives birth in prison which must have been awful. But I think of Leontes as someone who has very serious mental health problems. It hits him really suddenly and makes him think crazy things and it feels so true, he can’t even think about it being wrong. Then all the bad thoughts go away again and he realises what he’s done. The thing that changes his mind is a mysterious voice that comes from nowhere so maybe he heard a mysterious voice before which told him a lie? That’s how I see Leontes anyway and I feel really sad for him. It helps if Leontes is really brilliant like he is in this production.

I also like The Winter’s Tale because it doesn’t have a completely happy ending. Hermione and Perdita come back but Mamillius doesn’t. It kind of reminds me of the way things are now. Really terrible things have happened and life won’t ever be completely how it used to be because some things are changed forever but Leontes and his family were able to get a lot of good things back and find a new way of being happy. I really hope we can do that too. We won’t be as lucky as Leontes because people who have died don’t usually come back to life but maybe some people can make their relationships and their friendships better and people will come back into their lives like Perdita did.

TSMGO have done another really wonderful production. They have a really brilliant cast and they have lots of really good costumes and props and animals and special effects which bring the play even more to life. They probably wouldn’t usually have all the animals onstage in a theatre! (Lottie loves the ducks but she got a bit confused when I explained the plot. She doesn't understand why anyone would go and live in a palace when they could live with ducks. So I said maybe they took the ducks with them and she was happy after that.)

I don’t think Colin Hurley has been in a TSMGO production before but I have seen him in loads of roles for Shakespeare Happy Hours (his Richard III was especially brilliant) and the Globe Theatre and I was so excited about seeing him as Leontes and he totally lived up to my expectations. He is so lovely at the start, he has a lovely relationship with Mamillius and he seems like such a nice man. Then when he believes Hermione is unfaithful he falls apart in such a convincing way and it’s horrible in some ways but also so sad. Then when he realises he has made a really big mistake he is really moving. I’m glad he gets to be happy in the end.

Hermione is played by Hannah Young and she is so good. It is so sad seeing her change too, she is really funny and happy to start off with but what happens to her is awful for her and life is so difficult and she can’t be happy anymore. Ms Young shows the happiness drain out of her. She is also a brilliant statue, she was really still and she looked so pale I wondered if it was a special effect but then she came to life. She still had the pale make-up on but after she moved I didn’t notice it as much because she seemed so human.

I love Honey Gabriel as Paulina too. She has played lots of roles for TSMGO and she’s always so different. I don’t know if I’d even recognise her if she didn’t have her name on the screen because she can transform herself into different people so well. The way she speaks and the way she is dressed is always different. As Paulina she is really magnificent, she has a really quiet and calm way of speaking most of the time but she has so much presence, she’s one of the people you want to keep watching and keep listening to because there is something admirable about her.

Stephen Leask is also brilliant, he does Shakespeare and musicals which are two of my favourite things. Autolycus is the perfect role for him because he gets to use his comedy skills and he sings and plays the ukulele and he’s such a good singer and musician I almost forgot I was watching a play for a minute because it was like being at a concert.

I really liked the whole cast. Clive Keene and Giulia Rose are a lovely Florizel and Perdita, I like their chemistry together. Danann McAleer as Antigonus makes his pre-bear speech so moving. He doesn’t deserve what happens to him. Will Gillham is really funny as Clown. Eva Yacobi is a really sweet Mamillius who is completely ignoring the adults one minute and then pestering Leontes to play with him. My 5 year old sister is just like that! Luke Farrugia plays Emilia and Dorcas and it is so good seeing a man playing female roles, he is really good and he looks like he has so much fun. Kristin Duffy is a really creepy Time. Everyone else is really good too.

Next week is Cymbeline and I am so excited! I think I’ve only seen it once. Maybe Imogen will review that one. It's weird to think that if Shakespeare hadn't written Cymbeline she wouldn't be called Imogen because the name probably wouldn't have accidentally been invented.