Free The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare Page B

conspicuously foreign princess,” 59 and Roger Warren compared Perdita to a “Byzantine icon.” 60 Reviewer Harold Hobson praised Marilyn Taylerson’s Hermione for her “unexpectedly sharp tongue … there is not a scrap of flirtatiousness in her”; 61 Ian McKellen gave a “bristling performance” as Leontes “in a part ideally suited to his temperament and verse-speaking abilities.” 62
    The one influential innovation was the repositioning of Hermione’s statue, traditionally placed upstage center with both court and audience looking up at her. Barton positioned her by the proscenium left, facing out, with the court looking diagonally down at her from upstage, thus enabling the audience to see everyone’s reactions. This restaging won universal praise for enhancing the emotional power of the play’s resolution.
1981: A Smiling Villain?
    Ronald Eyre’s production was notable for the unusual and highly praised performance of Patrick Stewart as a Leontes who covered his jealousy with “gaiety” and “dangerous geniality,” although in retrospect clearly “jealous from the start.” 63 In keeping with this, the opening exchanges between the central trio were informal, characterized by friendly, youthful horseplay and jokes. However, both Hermione and Leontes wore crowns for the final scene, emphasizing a public as well as a private dimension to their reconciliation.
    Sheila Hancock’s Paulina also won praise: “equally original … a compassionate friend rather than tart scold.” 64 However, the overall Brechtian style of the production was less popular: “four coldly clinical lamps” 65 shone down onto the acting area; the white costumes appeared sterile rather than stylish; the set was high and blank-walled.
    As in 1976, the production’s “dominant visual motif” was “that of the theatre, of performing a story.” 66 Here a masque introduced the action, foreshadowing what was to come: as director, Leontes
    darted anxiously about the stage, wearing a clown’s red bulbous nose, blowing a toy trumpet and carrying a jester’s bladder … Autolycus … led in an enormous black bear. A polonaise signalled the entrance of Hermione [dressed as Flora and carrying a sheaf of wheat], partnered by Polixenes … A gigantic figure of Time [entered and] … at the stroke of twelve … Mamillius emerged from beneath Time’s cloak. 67
1984:
The Winter’s Tale
on Tour
    In 1984 a small-scale tour visited “non-velvet” venues, from cathedrals and sports halls to an agricultural showground.
The Winter’s Tale
was performed in promenade, the set consisting of a pair of movable rostra, “audience and acting area joined on a shared floor covered with countless Oriental carpets.” 68
    The audience were not just bystanders but were “invited to create the billowing shore of Bohemia with a white sheet [and] … sit attables with the cast to munch bread and quaff Ribena.” 69 “Hermione’s [trial] was breathtakingly staged, with innocent queen and jealous king facing each other across half a mile of carpet cordoned off by officious ushers like a royal procession.” 70 At the end, the rostra were pushed together to provide a raised acting area for “the beauty and gravity of those final scenes, with the statue coming to life amid flickering candles.” 71

    5. Autolycus leads in a bear in Ronald Eyre’s 1981 production.
    Alun Armstrong and Lynn Farleigh were praised for “human-scale” performances, “real warm people under their high tragedy of royal treachery,” 72 while Julian Curry’s “dignified, mystified Polixenes,”Janet Dale’s “outstandingly notable Paulina, elegant and beautifully spoken,” and Jennifer Landor’s “pulsatingly attractive Perdita” were all repeatedly singled out for