“The Winter’s Tale”

[rating=4] For those of you who fear attending any work of Shakespeare, except maybe “A Midsummer Night Dream”, you can rest easy that you will enjoy the new production of “The Winter’s Tale” at The Goodman Theatre. Under the skillful eye of its director, Robert Falls, this “hybrid” comedy/tragedy, will have you laughing and crying during its 2 hours-15 minutes ( one intermission). The play is set in a more modern era with clothing more  “today” than  its period, but Ana Kuzmanic’s costumes are very fitting of the mood of the story as well as the characters and what they represent. The set by Walt Spangler is quite simple and with the exception of leftover flowers on it, allows us to concentrate on the characters and the action.

The story being told is that of a jealous King, Leontes ( played to perfection by Dan Donohue) accusing his Queen, Hermoine( the always wonderful Kate Fry) of being unfaithful with another royal family. She is with child ( they already have a son, Mamillius ( Charlie Herman) but when the Queen has a little girl, the king demands that the baby be killed as well as the Queen. The baby is taken into the woods and left with a note and gold rather than thrown into the fire as demanded by  Leontes. With all of this going on, young Mamillius takes his own life. We certainly have tragedy!

The baby is found by  an Old Shepherd ( deftly handled by Tim Monsion) who along with his  son end up raising her. As she becomes a teen, the prince of their Kingdom, Florizel ( Xavier Bleuel) , son of Polixenenes ( Nathan Hosner) who we met earlier flirting with Hermoine, becomes entranced with and desires to wed. Perdita ( the lovely Chloe Baldwin) has no idea as to her “roots” thinking the Shepherd to be her father. The love affair between these two teens is thwarted by his father and through his aide and associate, Camillo ( Henry Godinez) the youngsters get to the other kingdom, far from Bohemia. By the way, there are several comments dealing with Bohemia and its “Rhapsody”.

A Special note relating the character Autolycus, who is a con man of the highest level, as well as a pick pocket and a neer do well. This is a comic character played to absolute perfection by Philip Earl Johnson that you will adore. In fact, every cast member appears to be having as much fun doing this play as we do watching it unfold. Well, maybe the true Shakespeare “purists” will disagree, but this is one that even someone who fears Shakespeare plays can sit back and enjoy. The ensemble is terrific: Will Allan, Cher Alvarez, Josh Carpenter, Christina Clark ( a dynamic Paulina), Amanda Drinkall,  Susaan Jamshidi, Mark Lancaster ( who gives us a funny “bit” to start act two, Gregory Linington,Martin Zebari and Christopher Sheard.

What is unique about “The Winter’s Tale” is the change of moods and attitudes as we go through wrath to redemption and at the very end reconciliation. There is a marvelous scene near the end dealing with a statue of the “late Queen” that is amazing to watch. I will not say more than to tell you, what you see is powerful and very extraordinary. Falls truly understands how to grab an audience and hold them to the story!

The lighting (Aaron Spivey) and sound (Richard Woodbury, who also created the original music) are perfect and the choreography by Tommy Rapley and the fight direction by Chuck Coyl round out the technical aspects of the production which will continue on the Goodman’s Albert stage through  June 9th with performances as follows:

Tuesday, May 28th  7:30 p.m.

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. ( no matinée on June 6th)

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays  2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. ( no evening on June 2nd or 9th)

Tickets run from $20-$75 and can be purchased at the box office, 170 N. Dearborn in Chicago, by phone 312-443-3800 or online at www.GoodmanTheatre.org/The-Winters-Tale

ACCESSIBILITY

June 1 at 12:30 p.m. touch-tour

June 5th at 7:30 p.m. ASL Interpreted

June 8th at 2 p.m. Open captioned

visit http://www.GoodmanTheatre,org/Access for more info

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Winter’s Tale”