A Tragicomedy by William Shakespeare
Directed by Arin Arbus

“Grisly…Giddy…Moving… [The Winter’s Tale] powerfully reminds us that not every loss can be undone…the excellent cast squeezes the ripe Shakespearean language for all it’s worth. Fleet and pungent, the production at two hours and 50 minutes, is much shorter than many. Anatol Yusef makes an unusually convincing Leontes… Mahira Kakkar is fierce as Paulina… Kelley Curran’s Hermione is regally played. We understand that what Shakespeare values is not the anarchic emotionality of men but the vigilant self-possession of women. Ms. Arbus’s production endorses that preference, suggesting a way to face all challenges…” – The New York Times

Arin Arbus’ (OBIE, The Skin of Our Teeth) productions of Shakespeare for TFANA include Othello and, most recently, King Lear. What for Shakespeare is possible after Lear? Ms. Arbus and a brilliant company of artists explore this in The Winter’s Tale, which Shakespeare wrote after his great tragedies. Leontes, a jealous king, accuses Hermione, his Queen, of infidelity. But unlike Othello, which ends in tragic deaths, in The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare invented a new form — half-tragedy, half-comedy, its two parts divided by sixteen years. There is metamorphosis. Spring follows winter; comedy follows tragedy; there’s a ferocious bear, song, dance and then a miracle: a statue comes alive. The Winter’s Tale explores if there can be forgiveness for terrible crimes? Can a shattered marriage and family be healed? Can there be redemption? Only Shakespeare could make a story as fantastically eventful into cohesive, soul-stirring drama.

Running Time: 2 hours and 50 minutes with one intermission.

Arin Arbus doesn’t beat around the bush in her production of Shakespeare’s tragicomedy The Winter’s Tale (at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonksy Shakespeare Center). She knows many of us are going to be waiting for that bear to show up in Act III and pursue Antigonus off in the most famous stage direction ever given. So what does Arbus do? She gives us the bear right upfront. The production’s very first moments feature Arnie Burton (who, interestingly, also plays Autolycus) clambering onstage in full bear costume and proceeding to revel in the falling snow. It’s a smart move for several reasons. It means we won’t be holding our breath waiting to see what the bear looks like all through Acts I and II, and it ensures that the costume isn’t just thrown away on a few seconds of stage time. But, slyly, it’s also artistic: we watch the bear pass from experimenting with the snow, to dancing in it, to freezing in it, and then climbing down into his hole (a trap door in the stage), presumably to hibernate until his big stage direction. It’s another subtle nod to the theme of the play: metamorphosis, death and rebirth, winter and summer, lost and found. Purists can rest easy, though: aside …Read more