The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's Globe, Bodleian Quad,
4:45pm Wednesday 20th August 2008
On a scale of one to ten of spectacular venues, the Bodleian Library Quad has to score 11. It is known that Shakespeare's company played in Oxford (though probably in tavern yards rather than the Bodleian!) so there was a real sense of history about the evening, especially as the library had put on display editions of Shakespeare's First Folio. Part of the Playhouse Plays Out season, Shakespeare's Globe production of The Winter's Tale (until tonight) must be one of the jewels of this excellent project.
A tale of sexual jealousy and redemption, there is a very contemporary appeal to The Winter's Tale. There is something very recognisable in the obsessive paranoia of King Leontes who becomes convinced - on no evidence but his own feelings - that his heavily pregnant wife, Hermione, is having an affair with his friend King Polixenes. Even when the oracle declares her innocence during the trial he brings against her, he cannot let go of his fixation that the child she carries is not his. Cruelly banishing the new-born baby to who knows where, Leontes then loses both his beloved son and the beautiful Hermione and realises his folly too late. It is hard to pity him in his self-inflicted grief but the powerful performance in this role of John Dougall actually does elicit some compassion.
But it is the wronged Hermione who truly captures the heart. A fine performance by Sasha Hails dramatic without ever veering to the hysterical, shone steadily throughout. As this is the Globe, one might have expected some gender cross-casting and, sure enough, the wise and fearless Paulina was played by Michael Benz. It was a rich and intelligent performance, but as all the other female characters were played by women it did take me a minute of two to catch on to what was happening, which was no reflection on his excellent depiction of this feisty heroine.
The second half of the play features love and redemption in the idyllic pastoral world of Bohemia - where Leontes's baby daughter has been abandoned, brought up by shepherds, then wooed by a prince. These scenes are refreshingly light and bubbly after the dark first half. Fergal McElherron was particularly funny as the trickster Autolocus. There were good performances all round as the actors doubled up on roles and the verse speaking was excellent, as you might expect given the company.
This visit from Shakespeare's Globe certainly lived up to expectations.