"The Winter's Tale" at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

I suppose it isn't easy to produce any of Shakespeare's works, really. Most of them are so well known, and audiences have so many expectations and predispositions, that it's got to be hard to please everyone. Producing one of the lesser-known plays, such as "A Winter's Tale," presents additional challenges. It's not a comedy or a drama or a history, like so many of the best-known plays. It's a romance, a genre that was just being invented in Shakespeare's day, so his efforts are varied, and may not jibe with the expectations of a modern audience.

Add to this issues with the text, and you have a most challenging endeavor. This year, Desdemona Chiang directs "The Winter's Tale" at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and to add to the degree of difficulty, the show is presented in the festival's largest venue, the outdoor Elizabethan stage. I got to know Desdemona a little bit last year when she directed "Heart Shaped Nebula" at Shotgun Players, a show I was a production sponsor for. When I found out she was directing this show at Ashland this year, we talked a little about it, and I've been looking forward to seeing the result.

About the Play

Compounding all the matters I mentioned above, "The Winter's Tale" is almost literally two separate plays. The first act takes place in Sicilia, a very structured and noble society, and it has the form of a classical tragedy. King Leontes, a fine and beloved king, suddenly decides that his wife has been unfaithful with his dear friend, Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Bad stuff ensues. Tragic stuff.

The second act takes place in Bohemia, sixteen years later. Bohemia is a wilder, more colorful (literally), looser place. This act has the form of a comedy. Things get better. Stuff gets resolved.

Unfortunately, there is a scene missing. Literally. The next-to-last scene, which should be the climax of the show, doesn't exist. A chorus comes on and describes what happened offstage, and then we have a denouement, but if Shakespeare actually wrote a scene for that, we don't have it anymore. So that's kind of a let-down, but that's the play we've got.

About the Production

Chiang made some interesting choices in staging the play. First, she modeled Sicilia after the Han Dynasty  in China, and Bohemia after the American West in the 19th century, sort of. She says the play has always appealed to her, as a product of different cultures and disparate academic pursuits. Although the setting doesn't strictly fit the play, it works in the fantasy realm that "Tale" requires, and the designs are quite striking and effective.

The large, open stage of the Elizabethan theater makes a great setting for a wide-ranging play such as this. Something about the big open space and sky makes a magical tale like this seem more plausible. My only complaint is that they have put microphones on the actors. I realize that many in the audience have difficulty hearing, but I found that some of the actor's voices were a bit distorted (Leontes, in particular, was hard to understand). Maybe that would be true without the amplification, but it seemed like this performance (July 3rd) was unusually unclear.

Mostly I was quite pleased with the results. A few scenes felt like maybe they could have been edited down a bit, as they dragged somewhat. But mostly the vibrant performances and vivid costumes made for a lively performance.

And I can't talk about this play without a mention of the most famous stage direction in all Shakespeare, "Exit pursued by bear." The bear in this case is most impressive and large, though I might take issue with whether the character in question actually manages to exit.

I will add that before we saw the play, we sat through the Preface offered by OSF. These cost something like $10, and I have always found them to be very worthwhile, and this was no exception. We got a good explanation of the whole Romance vs. Tragedy vs. Comedy milieu, plus some good discussion of the play. I highly recommend OSF's prefaces.

Bottom Line

This is the first time I've seen this particular play at OSF (though I had seen a production at CalShakes a couple of years ago). I thought it was quite good, and kind of a welcome respite from the more frequently produced plays. It's well worth seeing and hearing.